Brave New World — hosted by Vasant Dhar

She's a business leader, a Grammy-nominated musician and is trying to transform education. Chadrika Tandon joins Vasant Dhar in episode 69 of Brave New World to discuss her life, her learning, and why she is still so driven. Useful resources 1. Chandrika Tandon on Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Tandon School of Engineering and her own website. 2. Ammu's Treasures on YouTube, Flipbook and other streaming platforms. 3. Rick Smolan on a Life in Photography -- Episode 65 of Brave New World. 4. Lust for Life -- Norman Corwin. 5. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. 6. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard -- Thomas Gray. 7. A Psalm of Life -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 8. The Shadow Lines -- Amitav Ghosh. 9. Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham -- MS Subbulakshmi. 10. Binaca Geetmala, 1953-2000. 11. The Beatles and Carpenters on Spotify. 12. Quiet Fire -- Roberta Flack. 13. The Pyramid Principle -- Barbara Minto. 14. The Paradigm Shifts in Artificial Intelligence -- Vasant Dhar. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Will big data and scary AI take over the world? Not a chance, says Gary Smith, as he joins Vasant Dhar in episode 68 of Brave New World. The human brain is special. Useful resources: 1. Gary Smith on Twitter, Amazon, Pomona College, Google Scholar and his own website. 2. The AI Delusion -- Gary Smith. 3. Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science -- Gary Smith. 4. Standard Deviations: Flawed Assumptions, Tortured Data, and Other Ways to Lie with Statistics -- Gary Smith. 5. Security Analysis -- Benjamin Graham and David Dodd. 6. Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI — Episode 58 of Brave New World. 7. Raphaël Millière Looks Under the Hood of AI -- Episode 60 of Brave New World. 8. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet — Episode 15 of Brave New World. 9. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment --  Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein. 10. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement — Episode 21 of Brave New World. 11. The Nature of Intelligence — Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann le Cunn). 12. Ellie Pavlick on the Cutting Edge of AI -- Episode 67 of Brave New World. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Does ChatGPT really understand anything? Or is it faking it? Hell, do we understand how it works? Ellie Pavlick joins Vasant Dhar in episode 67 of Brave New World to share her thoughts on where AI has reached -- and where it's going.  Useful resources: 1. Ellie Pavlick at Brown and Google Scholar. 2. Symbols and grounding in large language models -- Ellie Pavlick. 3. Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI -- Episode 58 of Brave New World. 4. The Nature of Intelligence — Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann le Cunn). 5. Music, Mind, and Meaning -- Marvin Minsky. 6. Emergent Abilities of Large Language Models -- Jason Wei et al. 7. Hugging Face. 8. EleutherAI. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free! 

Law and social conventions around free speech have evolved with the times, but technology presents new challenges to both. In this new world of social media, how should we think about it? Jameel Jaffer joins Vasant Dhar in episode 66 of Brave New World to share his thoughts on how we can navigate this territory. Useful resources: 1. Jameel Jaffer on Wikipedia, Twitter, ACLU, Columbia Law School and Knight First Amendment Institute. 2. Social Media Companies Want to Co-opt the First Amendment. Courts Shouldn’t Let Them -- Jameel Jaffer and Scott Wilkens. 3. There’s a Problem With Banning TikTok. It’s Called the First Amendment. -- Jameel Jaffer. 4. Optimizing for What? Algorithmic Amplification and Society -- A symposium by the Knight Institute. 5. How Rights Went Wrong -- Jamal Greene. 6. Free Speech Futures -- An essay series edited by Jamal Greene. 7. Marketplace of Ideas. 8. Brandenburg v. Ohio. 9. Pentagon Papers. 10. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. 11. The Federalist Papers. 12. Whitney v. California. 13.  The Technology Wars -- Episode 1 of Brave New World (w Arun Sundararajan). Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

6. Tracks -- John Curran. 7. The Coddling of the American Mind — Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. 8. How Social Media Threatens Society — Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 9. A Day in the Life of Australia -- Rick Smolan. 10. The Player -- Robert Altman. 11. The Birth of a Word -- Deb Roy. 12. George & Jerry Invent A Show About Nothing -- Seinfeld. 13. Generative AI at Work -- Erik Brynjolfsson, Danielle Li and Lindsey Raymond. 14. Erik Brynjolfsson on the Second Machine Age — Episode 18 of Brave New World. 15. Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs -- Episode 27 of Brave New World. 16. Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy — Andrew Yang. 17. Bias, Lies, and Democracy — Episode 14 of Brave New World (w Ali Velshi). Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

He has skin in the game as a top banker -- and saw the power of AI long before others did. Piyush Gupta joins Vasant Dhar in episode 63 of Brave New World to share his excitement for the present -- and his vision for the future. Useful resources: 1. Piyush Gupta at DBS Bank, LinkedIn, Wikipedia and Twitter. 2. Tom Davenport on Artificial Intelligence in Business -- Episode 56 of Brave New World. 3. David Yermack on The Crypto Revolution -- Episode 30 of Brave New World. 4. SVB was a hedge fund in disguise–and the banking crisis is an overreaction -- Vasant Dhar. 5. The Three Laws of Robotics -- Isaac Asimov. 6. The Passions and the Interests -- Albert O Hirschman.

We live in a world of smell -- and we barely understand it! Dmitry Rinberg joins Vasant Dhar in episode 62 of Brave New World to discuss what he has learnt about the neurobiology of smell over the last two decades. Useful resources: 1. Dmitry Rinberg at NYU, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, Twitter and Rinberg Lab.. 2. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer -- Patrick Suskind. 3. A Novel Multigene Family May Encode Odorant Receptors: A Molecular Basis for Odor Recognition -- Linda Buck and Richard Axel. 4. Linda Buck and Richard Axel win the Nobel Prize. 5. Learning to Smell: Using Deep Learning to Predict the Olfactory Properties of Molecules -- Alexander B Wiltschko. 6. Digitizing Smell: Using Molecular Maps to Understand Odor -- Richard C Gerkin and Alexander B Wiltschko. 7. This Cat Sensed Death. What if Computers Could, Too? -- Siddhartha Mukherjee. 8. SMILES to Smell: Decoding the Structure–Odor Relationship of Chemical Compounds Using the Deep Neural Network Approach -- Anju Sharma, Rajnish Kumar, Shabnam Ranjta, and Pritish Kumar Varadwaj. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

One of the great disruptions that shaped the modern world was the way in which technology transformed Wall Street. Marty Fridson joins Vasant Dhar in episode 61 of Brave New World to talk about those good old days -- and these mad new times! Useful resources: 1. Martin Fridson at Lehman Livian Fridson Advisors, Amazon, Twitter and his own website. 2. When the Tech Revolution Came to Wall Street -- Marty Fridson. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

ChatGPT is great -- but does it 'understand' what it is telling us? Raphaël Millière joins Vasant Dhar in episode 60 of Brave New World to understand on what's going on inside ChatGPT -- and the larger questions that arise from this. Useful resources: 1. Raphaël Millière on Google Scholar, Twitter, LinkedIn, Columbia University and his own website. 2. How to Talk to (And About) Artificial Intelligence -- Raphaël Millière. 3. Moving Beyond Mimicry in Artificial Intelligence -- Raphaël Millière. 4. AI Art Is Challenging the Boundaries of Curation -- Raphaël Millière. 5. The Vector Grounding Problem -- Dimitri Coelho Mollo and Raphaël Millière. 6. Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI -- Episode 58 of Brave New World. 7. Paulo Kaiser on Assimilating ChatGPT -- Episode 59 of Brave New World. 8. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun). 9. The False Promise of ChatGPT -- Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts and Jeffrey Watumull. 10. The Bitter Lesson -- Rich Sutton. 11. On Bullshit -- Harry Frankfurt. 12. Bing’s A.I. Chat: ‘I Want to Be Alive -- Kevin Roose. 13. Language Models as Agent Models -- Jacob Andreas. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Will it take all our jobs? In what way will it make us better? What do we need to do? Paulo Kaiser joins Vasant Dhar in episode 59 of Brave New World to discuss the technology that is changing the world in ways we can't imagine. Bonus material: Wisdom for young professionals just starting out. Useful resources: 1. Paulo Kaiser on LinkedIn. 2. Plative. 3. Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI -- Episode 58 of Brave New World. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Also check out: 1. Sam Bowman at NYU Courant, LinkedIn,Twitter and Google Scholar. 2.  Measuring Progress on Scalable Oversight for Large Language Models -- Samuel R Bowman et al. 3. Herbert Simon, Harry Pople and Norbert Wiener. 4. Language Models as Agent Models -- Jacob Andreas. 5.  The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values — Brian Christian. 6. Human Compatible — Stuart Russell. 7. Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman. 8. ImageNet Classification with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks --Alex Krizhevsky et al. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

It is about time companies went all in on artificial intelligence. Tom Davenport joins Vasant Dhar in episode 56 of Brave New World to discuss how his work with AI in the corporate world makes him such an optimist. Useful resources: 1. Tom Davenport on Amazon, Twitter, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, Babson College and his own website. 2. All-in On AI -- Thomas H Davenport and Nitin Mittal.. 3. Competing on Analytics -- Thomas H Davenport and Jeanne G Harris. 4. Working with AI -- Thomas H Davenport and Steven M Miller. 5. The AI Advantage -- Thomas H Davenport. 6. Google fires software engineer who claims AI chatbot is sentient -- The Guardian. 7. Can AI have a soul? -- Fireside Chat with Blake Lemoine. 8. Portrait of an AI Leader: Piyush Gupta of DBS Bank -- Tom Davenport and Randy Bean. 9. The Future Of Work Now: Morgan Stanley’s Financial Advisors And The Next Best Action System -- Thomas H Davenport. 10. Stop Tinkering with AI -- Thomas H Davenport and Nitin Mittal. 11. The AI-First Company -- Ash Fontana. 12. Competing in the Age of AI -- Marco Iansiti and Karim R Lakhani. 13. Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century -- Thomas H Davenport and DJ Patil. 14. Foundation Medicine. 15. How Computer Automation Affects Occupations: Technology, Jobs, and Skills -- James E Bessen. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Social media has brought new challenges to our times, such as what they should or shouldn't publish or amplify. Do we need new laws to deal with these challenges, or are current laws sufficient? Paul M Barrett joins Vasant Dhar in episode 55 of Brave New World to share his insights. Useful resources 1. Paul M Barrett on Twitter, Amazon and NYU Stern. 2. Glock: The Rise of America's Gun -- Paul M Barrett. 3. A Platform ‘Weaponized’: How YouTube Spreads Harmful Content—And What Can Be Done About It -- Paul M Barrett and Justin Hendrix. 4. It’s Past Time to Take Social Media Content Moderation In-House -- Paul M Barrett. 5. Spreading The Big Lie: How Social Media Sites Have Amplified False Claims of U.S. Election Fraud -- Paul M Barrett. 6. The ‘Twitter Files’ Show It’s Time to Reimagine Free Speech Online -- David French. 7. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. 8. Dissecting “Noise” -- Vasant Dhar. 9. Philip Tetlock on the Art of Forecasting — Episode 31 of Brave New World. 10. The Battle for Attention -- Vasant Dhar. 11. Section 230: It’s Time to Equate Amplification to Publishing -- Vasant Dhar. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

We have become the first species that can edit its own programming. Dana Carroll joins Vasant Dhar in episode 54 of Brave New World to share his insights on the science of gene editing -- and the ethical questions it raises. Useful resources: 1. Dana Carroll at University of Utah and Google Scholar. 2. The Promise and Challenge of Therapeutic Genome Editing -- Jennifer Doudna. 3. Jennifer's Doudna conversation on CRISPR with Chris Anderson. 4. Jennifer Doudna at Google Scholar and Amazon. 5. CRISPR babies: when will the world be ready? -- Heidi Ledford. 6. Beyond CRISPR: What's current and upcoming in genome editing -- Chris Tachibana. 7. Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance -- Various authors. 8. Heritable Human Genome Editing -- Various authors. 9. Human genome editing: a framework for governance -- WHO. 10. Human genome editing: position paper -- WHO. 11. Human genome editing: recommendations -- WHO. 12. Animal Liberation — Peter Singer. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

In principle, you can take a single cell from an animal and feed an entire village. It's a matter of time. In the meantime, there are alternatives, like fermentation, to produce all kinds of new substitutes that could be better than meat in terms of nutrition and taste. Paul Shapiro joins Vasant Dhar in episode 53 of Brave New World to discuss how meat alternatives are the future -- and liberating for animals and the environment.

Has the world become more or less safe over the years? How do we measure risk in these times of crazy change? Neeti Bhalla Johnson joins Vasant Dhar in episode 52 of Brave New World to share her thoughts on how professionals do it! Useful resources: 1. Neeti Bhalla Johnson on LinkedIn and Liberty Mutual. 2. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. 3. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement — Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein. 4. Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman. 5. Dissecting “Noise” — Vasant Dhar. 6. Factfulness -- Hans Rosling. 7. Global Deaths in Conflicts Since the Year 1400 -- Chart by Max Roser. 8. War and Peace -- Max Roser, Joe Hasell, Bastian Herre and Bobbie Macdonald. 8. Destined for War.-- Graham Allison. 9. The Technology Wars — Episode 1 of Brave New World (w Arun Sundararajan). 10. The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy -- Michael Lewis. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

The brain and the gut are connected -- and our well-being depends on it. Emeran Mayer joins Vasant Dhar to speak about the importance of the gut in our physical lives -- and our emotional ones! Useful resources: 1. Emeran Mayer on Google Scholar, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and his own website. 2. The Mind-Gut Connection -- Emeran Mayer. 3. The Gut-Immune Connection -- Emeran Mayer. 4. Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions -- Jaak Panksepp. 5. Human and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare -- Episode 4 of Brave New World (w Eric Topol). 6. Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman. 7. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

India has achieved a technological miracle by empowering hundreds of millions of people with the power of identity. Pramod Varma joins Vasant Dhar in episode 50 of Brave New World to discuss his pioneering role in setting up large scale digital public infrastructure. Useful resources: 1. Pramod Varma on LinkedIn and Twitter. 2. India Stack, Aadhaar, E-Sign, DigiLocker and United Payments Interface. 3. The Beckn Protocol. 4. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World. 5. Data Democracy: People and Power in the Digital Age -- Nandan Nilekani's talk. 6. Why the US needs public-private partnerships for digital infrastructure -- Vasant Dhar. 7. 3 ways to increase social media platforms’ transparency -- Vasant Dhar. 8. On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog — New Yorker cartoon. 9. Who controls your data? India may pass a law ensuring that you do -- Vasant Dhar. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

We need to change the way we do philanthropy: it should be about sharing, not giving. Anshu Gupta joins Vasant Dhar in episode 49 of Brave New World to discuss his journey in building Goonj -- and why we need to rethink our frames. Useful resources: 1. Anshu Gupta on Goonj, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and his own website. 2. Goonj. 3. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State -- Episode 19 of Brave New World. 4. The Narrow Corridor: How Nations Struggle for Liberty — Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson. 5. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty —  Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson. 6. Joseph Aoun on Becoming Robot-Proof -- Episode 45 of Brave New World. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Is Bitcoin just a bubble, or the first face of the future? What about blockchain and DeFi? Hanna Halaburda and Yannis Bakos join Vasant Dhar in episode 48 of Brave New World to dig deeper into these questions. Useful resources:1. Hanna Halaburda at NYU Stern, Twitter and Google Scholar. 2. Yannis Bakos at NYU Stern and Google Scholar. 3. On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog -- New Yorker cartoon. 4. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System -- Satoshi Nakamoto. 5. Michael Saylor: Bitcoin, Inflation, and the Future of Money -- Lex Fridman Podcast #276. 6. Artifact of the Month: Ross William Ulbricht's Laptop. 7. How FBI caught Ross Ulbricht, alleged creator of criminal marketplace Silk Road -- Tim Hume. 8. Smart Contracts: Building Blocks for Digital Markets -- Nick Szabo. 9. Obelix and the Sleeping Cups -- Vasant Dhar. 10. Antoinette Schoar on Decentralized Finance & Crypto -- Episode 42 of Brave New World. 11. David Yermack on The Crypto Revolution -- Episode 30 of Brave New World. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

How did Covid-19 affect black Americans? What are the obstacles to their mobility and what can you do about it? Shelley Stewart joins Vasant Dhar in episode 47 of Brave New World to discuss his work at McKinsey trying to make an impact on black America. Useful resources: 1. Shelley Stewart at McKinsey & Company. 2. COVID-19: Investing in Black lives and livelihoods. 3. Soumitra Datta on Measuring Innovation -- Episode 46 of Brave New World. 4. Jeff Teper on the Post-Covid Workplace -- Episode 36 of Brave New World.

How can we tell if one country is more innovative than another? What drives that difference? And hey, what is innovation to begin with? Soumitra Datta joins Vasant Dhar in episode 46 of Brave New World to share his insights on innovation, and the lessons they hold for us. Useful resources: 1. Soumitra Datta on Twitter, Wikipedia and Saïd Business School. 2.  Does IT Matter? -- Nicholas Carr. 3. Global Innovation Index 2020 -- Edited by Soumitra Datta, Bruno Lanvin and Sacha Wunsch-Vincent. 4. India Innovation Index 2021: NITI Aayog. 5. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World. 6. The Swedish Hitmaker Behind Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and the Weeknd -- Neil Shah in the Wall Street Journal. 7. 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer. 8. Why Nations Fail -- Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. 9. The Narrow Corridor --  Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. 10. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State -- Episode 19 of Brave New World. 11. That Fancy University Course? It Might Actually Come From an Education Company -- Lisa Bannon and Rebecca Smith in the Wall Street Journal. 12. The Innovator’s Dilemma — Clayton M Christensen. 13. Law and Education in Our Modern World -- Episode 5 of Brave New World (w John Sexton). 14. Too much efficiency not good for higher education, March argues -- Stanford University News Service. 15. Uplift the Unremarkables -- Episode 2 of Brave New World (w Scott Galloway). Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

If robots and AI are replacing us, we need to reinvent ourselves. Joseph Aoun joins Vasant Dhar in episode 45 of Brave New World to discuss the role of education in making humanity robot-proof. Useful resources: 1. Joseph Aoun on Twitter, Google Scholar and Northeastern University. 2. Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence -- Joseph Aoun. 3. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton Christensen. 4. Caitlin Zaloom on the Explosion of Student Debt -- Episode 37 of Brave New World. 5. Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost -- Caitlin Zaloom. 6.  Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. 7. The Future of Liberal Education -- Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth). 8. How Humans Judge Machines -- César Hidalgo. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Perhaps the greatest human sin is how we treat animals. Maneka Gandhi joins Vasant Dhar in episode 44 of Brave New World to share her learnings from decades as an animal activist. Useful resources: 1. Maneka Gandhi on Instagram, Twitter and Wikipedia. 2. Animal Liberation -- Peter Singer. 3. Animal Farming and Protein -- Vasant Dhar. 4. Slaughterhouses and Increased Crime Rates -- Amy J Fitzgerald, Linda Kalof and Thomas Dietz. 5. The Jungle -- Upton Sinclair. 6. The Draize Test. 7. Animals in Cosmetics Testing. 8. Animals Should Be Off The Menu -- Philip Wollen. 9. How Oprah Got Sued for Dissing a Burger -- Brian Duignan. 10. Is Milk the Best Source of Calcium? -- Alisa Fleming.

Will cryptocurrencies save the world or create a new can of worms? Antoinette Schoar joins Vasant Dhar in episode 42 of Brave New World to take us on a dispassionate tour through the world of Bitcoin, blockchains and DeFi. Useful resources: 1. Antoinette Schoar At MIT Sloan School of Management and Google Scholar. 2. Cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi) -- Igor Makarov and Antoinette Schoar 3. David Yermack on The Crypto Revolution -- Episode 30 of Brave New World. 4. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System -- Satoshi Nakamoto. 5. Are Cryptocurrencies Currencies? Bitcoin as Legal Tender in El Salvador -- Fernando Alvarez, David Argente and Diana Van Patten. 6. Incomplete Contracts and Control -- Oliver Hart's Nobel Prize Lecture.

What are the philosophical implications of virtual reality? Do we exist "physically" or "virtually" and does it matter? Is virtual reality real? How is reality different from consciousness? David Chalmers joins Vasant Dhar in episode 41 of Brave New World to talk about the big questions at the intersection of philosophy and AI that are are being driven by advances in neuroscience and virtual reality. Useful resources 1. David Chalmers at NYU, Google Scholar, Amazon and his own website. 2. Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy -- David Chalmers. 3. The Conscious Mind -- David Chalmers. 4. Douglas Hofstadter on Amazon. 5. Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain -- Patricia Churchland. 6. Anthony Zador on How our Brains Work -- Episode 35 of Brave New World. 7. White Christmas -- Episode 4 of Season 2 of Black Mirror. 8. It From Bit -- John Archibald Wheeler. 9. John Conway's Game of Life. 10. Nick Bostrom on Amazon. 11. The Simulation Hypothesis. 12. World on a Wire -- Rainer Werner Fassbinder. 13. The Matrix -- The Wachowskis. 14. The Naked Sun -- Isaac Asimov. 15. Descartes' Evil Demon. 16. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? -- Thomas Nagel. 17.  Integrated Information Theory -- Giulio Tononi. 18. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun). 19. The Turing Test. 20. The Consciousness Prior -- Yoshua Bengio.

'We need narrative theory,' says Ben Hunt, to understand the alien beings called Narratives that inhabit our Metaverse. Hunt joins Vasant Dhar in episode 40 of Brave New World to describe how Big Tech is changing the way we think -- and how we need to fight it. Useful resources: 1. Ben Hunt on Twitter, LinkedIn and Epsilon Theory, 2. Epsilon Theory, 3. Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 1: The Living Word -- Ben Hunt. 4. Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 2: Gain of Function -- Ben Hunt. 5. Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 3: The Luther Protocol -- Ben Hunt. 6. Chris Bail on How to Fight Polarization -- Episode 34 of Brave New World. 7. Amusing Ourselves to Death -- Neil Postman. 8. The Selfish Gene -- Richard Dawkins. 9. Lapham's Quarterly. 10. We Refugees -- Hannah Arendt. 11. The Power of Myth -- Joseph Campbell. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Hooking up ain't like it used to be. Marie Bergstrom joins Vasant Dhar in episode 39 of Brave New World to discuss her research on how the internet has changed the world of love -- and lust. Useful resources: 1. Marie Bergstrom on Google Scholar.  2. The New Laws of Love -- Marie Bergstrom. 3. Ruth Westheimer on Wikipedia. 4. A modern manifesto against sex positivity -- Michelle Goldberg. 5. Rethinking Sex: A Provocation -- Christine Emba. Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

These are exciting times for wine lovers. Joel Peterson, the Godfather of Zinfandel, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 38 of Brave New World to raise a toast to the innovators who continue to transform the world of wine. Useful resources: 1. Once and Future Wine and Ravenswood. 2. Zinfandel on Wikipedia. 3. The parentage of a classic wine grape, Cabernet Sauvignon -- JE Bowers and CP Meredith. 4. Historical Genetics: The Parentage of Chardonnay, Gamay, and Other Wine Grapes of Northeastern France -- J Bowers, JM Boursiquot, P This, H Johansson and C Meredith. 5. Zinfandel, Dobrièiæ, and Plavac mali: The Genetic Relationship among Three Cultivars of the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia -- E Maletiæ, I Pejiæ, J Karoglan Kontiæ, J Piljac, GS Dangl, A Vokurka, T Lacombe, N Miroševiæ and CP Meredith. 6. Whole genome amplification and microsatellite genotyping of herbarium DNA revealed the identity of an ancient grapevine cultivar -- Nenad Malenica, Silvio Simon, Višnja Besendorfer, Edi Maletić, Jasminka Karoglan Kontić and Ivan Pejić. 7. An Ideal Wine -- David Darlington. 8. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. 9. Higher wine prices boost drinking pleasure -- Clare Baldwin. 10. Interpretations of colour composition in young red wines -- TC Somers. 11. Wine Colour and Tannin -- The Australian Wine Research Institute. 12. Law and Education in Our Modern World -- Episode 5 of Brave New World (w John Sexton).

Education empowers people, but education debt can cripple them and they families financially. Caitlin Zaloom joins Vasant Dhar in episode 37 of Brave New World to describe the depth of the problem, and what can be done about it. Useful resources: 1. Caitlin Zaloom at NYU, Google Scholar and Twitter. 2. Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost -- Caitlin Zaloom. 3. Law and Education in Our Modern World -- Episode 5 of Brave New World (w John Sexton). 4. The Future of Liberal Education -- Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth). 5. Uplift the Unremarkables -- Episode 2 of Brave New World (w Scott Galloway). 7. The Value of Soft Skills in the Labor Market -- David J Deming. 8. Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? -- David H Autor. 9. The Price You Pay for College -- Ron Lieber.

The brain is a complex machine, but some of us study its circuits and figure out its secrets. Anthony Zador joins Vasant Dhar in episode 35 of Brave New World to reveal what the cutting edge of neuroscience looks like. Useful resources: 1. Anthony Zador at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Google Scholar and Twitter. 2. Christof Koch on Amazon. 3. A critique of pure learning and what artificial neural networks can learn from animal brains -- Anthony Zador. 4. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence -- Hans Moravec. 5. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun). 6. How the Mind Works -- Steven Pinker. 7. Ebbinghaus Illusion.

Social media is tearing us apart by feeding into our need for status. Can we mitigate its effects? Chris Bail joins Vasant Dhar in episode 34 of Brave New World to share his research on how social media affects us -- and how we can fight back. Useful resources 1. Chris Bail at Duke, Sanford School of Public Policy, Google Scholar, Amazon, Twitter and his own website. 2. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing -- Chris Bail. 3. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (with Sinan Aral). 4. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (with Jonathan Haidt). 5. Helena Rosenblatt on Liberalism’s Long Journey -- Episode 32 of Brave New World. 6. We Have Never Been Here Before -- Thomas L Friedman. 7. Adam Alter on Beating Our Addictions -- Episode 28 of Brave New World. 8. The Hype Machine -- Sinan Aral.

The value of a company has a lot to do with the stories it tells about itself. Aswath Damodaran joins Vasant Dhar in episode 33 of Brave New World to discuss how narratives and numbers are related. Useful Resources: 1. Aswath Damodaran on YouTube, Blogspot, Twitter, Amazon and NYU Stern. 2. Narrative and Numbers: The Value of Stories in Business -- Aswath Damodaran. 3. The Innovator's Dilemma -- Clayton M Christensen. 4. A Disruptive Cab Ride to Riches: The Uber Payoff -- Aswath Damodaran. 5. How to Miss By a Mile: An Alternative Look at Uber’s Potential Market Size -- Bill Gurley. 6. Possible, Plausible and Probable: Big markets and Networking effects -- Aswath Damodaran. 7. Up, up and away! A crowd-valuation of Uber! -- Aswath Damodaran. 8. The Success Equation -- Michael J Mauboussin. 9. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction — Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 10. Philip Tetlock on the Art of Forecasting -- Episode 31 of Brave New World. 11. The Zomato IPO: A Bet on Big Markets and Platforms! -- Aswath Damodaran. 12. Reciprocal Scoring: A Method for Forecasting Unanswerable Questions — Ezra Karger, Joshua Monrad, Barb Mellers and Philip Tetlock. 13. Trafalgar Polls. 14. The Hedgehog and the Fox -- Isaiah Berlin. 15. The Big Market Delusion: Valuation and Investment Implications -- Bradford Cornell and Aswath Damodaran. 16. The Market is Huge! Revisiting the Big Market Delusion -- Aswath Damodaran.

What is liberal democracy and has it lost its way? Helena Rosenblatt joins Vasant Dhar in episode 32 of Brave New World to add a historical perspective to this modern problem in our illiberal and polarized world. Useful resources: 1. The Lost History of Liberalism -- Helena Rosenblatt. 2. Thinking with Rousseau: From Machiavelli to Schmitt -- Helena Rosenblatt. 3. Helena Rosenblatt on Amazon. 4. Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Amazon. 5. The Technology Wars -- Episode 1 of Brave New World (w Arun Sundararajan.) 6. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World. 7. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral). 8. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 9. Justice Antonin Scalia on American exceptionalism. 10. The Future of Liberal Education -- Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth).

Yogi Berra once said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." Philip Tetlock joins Vasant Dhar in episode 31 of Brave New World to discuss what  superforecasters do consistently well -- and how we can improve our judgement and decision-making. Useful resources: 1. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 2. Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? -- Philip Tetlock. 3. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. 4. Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer -- Duncan Watts. 5. The Hedgehog and the Fox -- Isiah Berlin. 6. What do forecasting rationales reveal about thinking patterns of top geopolitical forecasters? -- Christopher W Karvetski, Carolyn Meinel, Daniel T Maxwell, Yunzi Lu, Barbara A.Mellers and Philip E.Tetlock. 7. Terry Odean on How to Think about Investing -- Episode 23 of Brave New World. 8. Reciprocal Scoring: A Method for Forecasting Unanswerable Questions -- Ezra Karger, Joshua Monrad, Barb Mellers and Philip Tetlock. 9. The Signal and the Noise -- Nate Silver. 10. FiveThirtyEight.

Goodbye big banks. Hello crypto. The world of finance is in the process of changing forever, and David Yermack is your guide. Yermack joins Vasant Dhar in episode 30 of Brave New World to share his road map of, well, this brave new world! Useful resources: 1. David Yermack at NYU Stern and Google Scholar. 2. Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet -- Episode 15 of Brave New World. 3. Linus's Law (from The Cathedral and the Bazaar). 4. The DAO hack mentioned in the episode.

More and more, the digital world is being designed to turn us into addicts. Adam Alter joins Vasant Dhar in episode 28 of Brave New World to describe the sinister ways in which this happens -- and what we can do about it. Useful resources: 1. Irresistible -- Adam Alter. 2. Drunk Tank Pink -- Adam Alter. 3. Dopamine Nation -- Anna Lembke. 4. Anna Lembke on Beating Dopamine -- Episode 26 of Brave New World. 5. Addiction by Design -- Natasha Dow Schüll. 6.  Andrew Yang on the New Politics America Needs -- Episode 27 of Brave New World. 7. Bias, Lies, and Democracy -- Episode 14 of Brave New World (w Ali Velshi). 8. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World.

Andrew Yang supports some game-changing ideas, such as UBI and taxing robots, and they're rooted in a radical vision of what America's politics should be. Yang joins Vasant Dhar in episode 27 of Brave New World to explain why the system is broken -- and how it can be changed. Useful resources: 1. Andrew Yang on his website, Twitter, YouTube and Amazon. 2. Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy -- Andrew Yang. 3. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 4. Erik Brynjolfsson on the Second Machine Age -- Episode 18 of Brave New World.

Are you addicted? You may be a slave to dopamine without realising it, whether in the substances you put into your body or the behaviors you adopt. Anna Lembke, author of Dopamine Nation, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 26 of Brave New World to discuss how we can beat this. Useful resources: 1. Anna Lembke's website. 2. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence -- Anna Lembke. 3. Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It's So Hard to Stop -- Anna Lembke. 4. Digital Addictions Are Drowning Us in Dopamine -- Anna Lembke. 5. Is Social Media Hijacking our Minds? -- Anna Lembke and Nir Eyal. 6. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 7. True self and false self (Wikipedia). 8. Ego Distortion in Terms of True and False Self (1960) -- Donald Winnicott. 9. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. 10. How I Became Extremely Open-Minded -- Ross Douthat.

There is a new religion in town. It has the best intentions, but it may harm those it claims to help. John McWhorter joins Vasant Dhar in episode 25 of Brave New World to talk about his book Woke Racism -- and on the dangers of this new social movement that could tear us apart. Useful resources: 1. Woke Racism -- John McWhorter. 2. The Coddling of the American Mind -- Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. 3. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 4.  The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks -- Randall Robinson. 5. The Case for Reparations -- Ta-Nehisi Coates. 6. What does anti-racism in mathematics look like? -- John McWhorter in conversation with Glenn Loury.

Machine Learning can improve decision making in a big way -- but it can also reproduce human biases and discrimination. Solon Barocas joins Vasant Dhar in episode 24 of Brave New World to discuss the challenges of solving this problem.  Useful resources: 1.  Solon Barocas at his website, Cornell, Google Scholar and Twitter. 2. Fairness and Machine Learning -- Solon Barocas, Moritz Hardt and Arvind Narayanan. 3. Danger Ahead: Risk Assessment and the Future of Bail Reform: John Logan Koepke and David G. Robinson. 4. Fairness and Utilization in Allocating Resources with Uncertain Demand -- Kate Donahue and Jon Kleinberg. 5. Profiles, Probabilities, and Stereotypes -- Frederick Schauer. 6. Thinking Like a Lawyer: A New Introduction to Legal Reasoning -- Frederick Schauer. 7. Measuring the predictability of life outcomes with a scientific mass collaboration -- Mathew Salganik and others. 8. Inherent Trade-Offs in the Fair Determination of Risk Scores -- Jon Kleinberg, Sendhil Mullainathan and Manish Raghavan. 9. Limits to Prediction -- Arvind Narayanan and Matthew Salganik. 10. The Fragile Families Challenge. 11.  Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. 12.  Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment -- Daniel Kahneman. 13. Dissecting “Noise” — Vasant Dhar. 14. Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness -- Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein.

How do we pick the stocks we buy? What drives us to sell? How does new technology impact our attention and behavior? Terrance Odean joins Vasant Dhar in episode 23 of Brave New World to share his learnings over a lifetime of studying behavioral finance. Useful resources:

Google and Facebook have an outrageous amount of market power, and that's dangerous for society. Dina Srinivasan joins Vasant Dhar in episode 22 of Brave New World to discuss the dangers, and how we can tackle them. Useful resources: 1. Dina Srinivasan's homepage and Twitter. 2. The Antitrust Case Against Facebook -- Dina Srinivasan. 3. Why Google Dominates Advertising Markets -- Dina Srinivasan. 4. Aldous Huxley interviewed by Mike Wallace. 5. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State -- Episode 19 of Brave New World. 6. Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt -- Michael Lewis. 7. Bias, Lies, and Democracy -- Episode 14 of Brave New World (w Ali Velshi). 8. Uplift the Unremarkables -- Episode 2 of Brave New World (w Scott Galloway). 9. Can a Machine Have Human Values? -- Episode 13 of Brave New World (w Brian Christian).

We overestimate our skill at decision making. We're pretty bad, and bias isn't the only reason. Daniel Kahneman joins Vasant Dhar in episode 21 of Brave New World to shed light on the problem of Noise, and what we can do about it. Useful resources: 1. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement -- Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein. 2. Thinking, Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman. 3. Dissecting “Noise” -- Vasant Dhar. 4. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 5. Herbert A Simon on Amazon.

It is a matter of time before machines outstrip humans in most capabilities. How can we possibly stop a more intelligent entity from taking control? Stuart Russell joins Vasant Dhar in episode 20 of Brave New World to explain why, despite the dangers, he remains optimistic about artificial intelligence and how to control it. Useful resources: 1. Human Compatible -- Stuart Russell. 2. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach -- Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig. 3. Erewhon, or Over The Range -- Samuel Butler. 4. The Theory of Political Economy -- W Stanley Jevons. 5.  Decision and Organization -- Edited by CB McGuire and Roy Radner, with a contribution from Kenneth Arrow. 6. Welfare Economics of Variable Tastes -- John C Harsanyi. 7. Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren -- John Maynard Keynes.

Why do some nations fail in their lurch towards liberty while others succeed? James Robinson joins Vasant Dhar in episode 19 of Brave New World to explain why there is no simple answer to that question -- but the balance between the state and society is central to understanding it. Also discussed: the developing challenge of Big Tech. Useful resources: 1. The Narrow Corridor: How Nations Struggle for Liberty -- Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson. 2. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty --  Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson. 3. Erik Brynjolfsson on the Second Machine Age -- Episode 18 of Brave New World.

Is a humane war a contradiction in terms? Can rules be made and followed that limit the damage that wars do, or will that make conflict perpetual? Is it necessary and moral for the USA to continue to be the policeman of the world? Samuel Moyn joins Vasant Dhar in episode 16 of Brave New World to tackle the thorny ethical and practical questions around warfare and terrorism as technologies become more precise and lethal. Useful resources: 1. Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War -- Samuel Moyn. 2. Samuel Moyn's books on Amazon.

The internet began with an Age of Innocence, which gave way to the Age of Commerce, driven by the advertising model. Nandan Nilekani joins Vasant Dhar in episode 15 of Brave New World to describe how we have now entered the Age of Geopolitics, in which nation states are jostling for power with big tech companies, while tailoring regulation based on their needs and aspirations. They also discuss Nandan's pioneering role in building India's data empowerment architecture -- which the rest of the world can learn from in designing systems that empower individuals as well as societies. Useful resources: 1. Nandan Nilekani's books on Amazon. 2. “Rogue Intermediaries”: Designing Equitable Digital Playgrounds -- Arun Mohan Sukumar. 3. Agile Tech Regulation -- Rahul Matthan. 4. Why anti-trust is antiquated for Big Tech -- Charles Assisi.

Is our democracy in peril? What role has the media played in this? What should we do about it? Ali Velshi joins Vasant Dhar in episode 14 of Brave New World to discuss the subtleties of bias, fake news, information consumption and what to do about social media. Useful resources: 1. Ali Velshi on Twitter and Instagram. 2. Understanding QE in the New World -- Episode 10 of Brave New World (w Paul Sheard). 3. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 4. Can a Machine Have Human Values? -- Episode 13 of Brave New World (w Brian Christian). 5. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral).

As artificial intelligence gets more and more powerful, the need becomes greater to ensure that machines do the right thing. But what does that even mean? Brian Christian joins Vasant Dhar in episode 13 of Brave New World to discuss, as the title of his new book goes, the alignment problem. Useful resources: 1. Brian Christian's homepage. 2. The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values -- Brian Christian. 3. Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions -- Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths. 4. The Most Human Human -- Brian Christian. 5. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 6. Are We Becoming a New Species? -- Episode 12 of Brave New World (w Molly Crockett). 7. The Nature of Intelligence -- Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann le Cunn) 8. Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation -- Norbert Wiener. 9.Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies -- Nick Bostrom. 10. Human Compatible: AI and the Problem of Control -- Stuart Russell. 11. OpenAI. 12. Center for Human-Compatible AI. 13. Concrete Problems in AI Safety -- Dario Amodei, Chris Olah, Jacob Steinhardt, Paul Christiano, John Schulman, Dan Mané. 14. Machine Bias -- Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu and Lauren Kirchner. 15. Inherent Trade-Offs in the Fair Determination of Risk Scores -- Jon Kleinberg, Sendhil Mullainathan, Manish Raghavan. 16. Algorithmic Decision Making and the Cost of Fairness -- Sam Corbett-Davies, Emma Pierson, Avi Feller, Sharad Goel, Aziz Huq.. 17. Predictions Put Into Practice -- Jessica Saunders, Priscillia Hunt, John S. Hollywood 18. An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets -- Donald MacKenzie. 19. An Anthropologist on Mars -- Oliver Sacks. 20. Deep Reinforcement Learning from Human Preferences -- Paul F Christiano, Jan Leike, Tom B Brown, Miljan Martic, Shane Legg, Dario Amadei for OpenAI & Deep Mind.

Social media is changing human behavior. How and why are humans being transformed by algorithms? Molly Crockett joins Vasant Dhar in episode 12 of Brave New World to describe her work at the meeting place of technology and morality. Useful resources: 1. Molly Crockett at Yale, Oxford Neuroscience, Google Scholar and Twitter. 2. Crockett Lab. 3. Moral outrage in the digital age -- MJ Crockett. 4. The MAD Model of Moral Contagion: The Role of Motivation, Attention, and Design in the Spread of Moralized Content Online -- William J Brady, MJ Crockett and Jay J Van Bavel. 5. Inference of trustworthiness from intuitive moral judgments -- Jim AC Everett, David A Pizarro and MJ Crockett. 6. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral). 7. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 8. A computational reward learning account of social media engagement -- Björn Lindström and others. 9. The Alignment Problem -- Brian Christian. 10. You and the Algorithm: It Takes Two to Tango -- Nick Clegg. 11. Moral Learning: Conceptual foundations and normative relevance -- Peter Railton. 12. The social dilemma of autonomous vehicles -- Jean-François Bonnefon, Azim Shariff and Iyad Rahwan. 13. Emotion shapes the diffusion of moralized content in social networks -- William J Brady and others.

In these polarised times, what should the colleges of tomorrow look like? Michael S Roth, the president of Wesleyan University, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 11 of Brave New World to discuss his vision for liberal education. We should empower individuals, he says, by designing for serendipity. Useful resources: 1. Safe Enough Spaces -- Michael S Roth. 2. Beyond the University -- Michael S Roth. 3. ‘Minds Wide Shut’ Review: Dogma, Division and Distrust -- Michael S Roth. 4. Forgiveness in an age of cancel culture -- Michael S Roth. 5. Higher Education Must Stand Up for Voting Rights -- Michael S Roth. 6. Reasoning in Rough Times -- Michael S Roth. 7. A Focus on Critical Feeling -- Michael S Roth. 8. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt).

Covid was a shock to the global economy. Policy makers have responded with Quantitative Easing. Paul Sheard joins Vasant Dhar in episode 10 of Brave New World to discuss the nuances of QE and its possible impacts. Also discussed: the role of monetary policy in this changing tech landscape, helicopter money and the big question of the 21st century. (Listen to find out!) Useful resources: 1. Quantitative Easing - Explaining It and Dispelling the Myths -- Paul Sheard. 2. MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) – What Is It and Can It Help? -- Paul Sheard. 3. Don’t Lose Sleep Over Mounting Government Debt -- Paul Sheard. 4. A More Robust Macroeconomic Policy Framework Is Needed -- Paul Sheard. 5. The Economic Impact of AI -- Paul Sheard. 6. Bank of International Settlements: Central bank digital currencies: foundational principals and core features. 7. Group of Thirty: Digital Currencies and Stablecoins: Risks, Opportunities, and Challenges Ahead. 

Artificial intelligence can transform healthcare -- and the medical profession may be behind the curve. Regina Barzilay joins Vasant Dhar in episode 9 of Brave New World to talk about how doctors, programmers and lawyers need to find a meeting point to make the revolution happen. Useful resources: 1. Regina Barzilay at MIT CSAIL and MIT J-Clinic. 2. A Deep Learning Approach to Antibiotic Discovery -- Regina Barzilay and others. 3. Toward robust mammography-based models for breast cancer risk -- Regina Barzilay and others. 4. Multi-Objective Molecule Generation using Interpretable Substructures -- Regina Barzilay and others. 5. Human and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare -- Episode 4 of Brave New World (w Eric Topol). 6. Artificial Intelligence — The Revolution Hasn’t Happened Yet -- Michael Jordan. 7. Intelligible Models for HealthCare: Predicting Pneumonia Risk and Hospital 30-day Readmission -- Rich Caruana and others.

The internet has changed our lives, mostly for the better. But there is a flip side. Jonathan Haidt joins Vasant Dhar in episode 8 of Brave New World to describe how social media is a threat to democracy and public discourse -- and to the mental health of a generation. Useful resources: 1. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion -- Jonathan Haidt. 2. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure -- Jonathan Haidt. 3. The website for The Coddling, especially its suggestions on How To Improve Social Media. 4. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom -- Jonathan Haidt. 5. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral). 6. The Dark Psychology of Social Networks -- Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell. 7. The Federalist Papers -- Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay.

Trying to build artificial intelligence can teach us so much about intelligence itself. AI pioneer Yann LeCun, a winner of the Turing Award, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 7 of Brave New World to discuss how the field of AI has evolved and where it is heading. Points of discussion:  How machines that perceive the world have turbocharged AI. How one of the biggest challenges in deep learning is common sense. The interface between industry and the academy. And how consciousness may not be a superpower but a reflection of our limitations. Useful resources: 1. Yann LeCun's homepage. 2. Yann LeCun's papers.  3. Language and Learning: The Debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky -- Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini (editor). 4. Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry -- Marvin Minsky & Seymour Papert. 5. Her -- Spike Jonze.

How should the Biden administration treat China? The same way the Trump administration did, Peter Berkowitz tells Vasant Dhar in episode 6 of Brave New World. The USA, argues Berkowitz, must not lose sight of its core values as a great democracy. Useful resources: 1. The Elements of the China Challenge -- The Policy Planning Staff, Office of the Secretary of State. 2. Report of the Commission on Unalienable Rights. 3. The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower -- Michael Pillsbury.

We live in a different world than we did 30 years ago. How can law and education adapt to the disruptions of technology and politics? John Sexton joins Vasant Dhar in episode 5 of Brave New World to share his insights as an educator who tried to forge a way ahead. Useful resources: 1. Standing for Reason: The University in a Dogmatic Age -- John Sexton. 2. Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game -- John Sexton.

Despite amazing scientific advances, why is our healthcare system failing us today? It is rife with mistakes and lacks care. Can artificial intelligence aid the human touch in healthcare? Eric Topol joins Vasant Dhar in episode 4 of Brave New World to discuss how doctors and machines can come together to improve our lives and move us towards a world of individualized medicine. Useful resources: Deep Medicine by Eric Topol, as well as his other books.

Can social media platforms change our society? Sinan Aral joins Vasant Dhar in episode 3 of Brave New World to share his concerns. Useful resources: The Hype Machine by Sinan Aral, as well as Sinan's website, videos and research.

In this no-holds-barred conversation with Vasant Dhar, Scott Galloway shreds the myth of American mobility. He urges our institutions, especially universities, to shed their obsession with the elites, and instead uplift the 'unremarkables.' Useful resources: 1. Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity -- Scott Galloway. 2. No Mercy / No Malice -- Scott Galloway's newsletter. 3. The Prof G Show with Scott Galloway. 4. Pivot, hosted by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. 5. The Third Pillar -- Raghuram Rajan.

In the Internet era, war is about tech. Technology platforms are the new power players of our times, alongside the state. Arun Sundararajan joins Vasant Dhar to discuss how the Internet is shaping the power dynamic between individuals, platforms and the state, the choices that confront us and their consequences. They discuss the US-China war, who is winning, and what it all means for us. Useful resources: 1. The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism -- Arun Sundararajan. 2. 3 Ways to Increase Social Media Platforms' Transparency -- Vasant Dhar. 3. Who Controls Your Data? -- Vasant Dhar. 4. Platforms and Ecosystems: Enabling the Digital Economy -- Michael G. Jacobides, Arun Sundararajan & Marshall Van Alstyne. For more, do visit the Brave New World website.

The role of tech in our lives has accelerated in the post-COVID era, creating a ‘virtual’ existence with low physical human contact. It has transformed how we work, govern, stay healthy, worship, invest, entertain, and much more. In this preview episode, Vasant Dhar -- a longtime AI researcher and data scientist -- tells us about the forthcoming mind-opening conversations with leading experts will discuss the world that our future selves will inhabit.

Upcoming guests include:

Scott Galloway: Author, entrepreneur and visionary, Professor NYU. Sinan Aral: Professor MIT, author of The Hype Machine. Yann Lecun: Turing award winner 2019, Chief Scientist, Facebook, Professor NYU. Richard Thaler: Nobel Laureate in Economics 2017, Professor University of Chicago. John Sexton: 15th President of NYU (2002-2015), Professor of law, NYU. Eric Topol: Professor of Molecular Medicine, Scripps Research. Nandan Nilekani: needs no introduction.

Welcome to Brave New World!