Navigating AI: Conversations on Society and Innovation

Today's podcast guest is Fred Turner, a Professor of Communication at Stanford and probably the best historian of Silicon Valley culture over the past 100 years.

His book, From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism, is my favorite book on Silicon Valley's history, focusing on how hippies and hackers came together from the 60s to the 90s. But he’s researched essentially every Silicon Valley micro-movement, from Buckminster Fuller to the maker movement to diversity posters at Facebook.

Fred is also one of the warmest, most enthusiastic storytellers I know—the kind of history teacher everyone wishes they had. You’ll leave this listen with a bunch of fun facts about the Whole Earth Catalog, Burning Man, and the Italian futurists; but more importantly, a deep appreciation for what humans and the humanities can offer.

Topics:

- The two types of Bay Area hippies

- How the cyberculture got corporatized

- Disembodiment and dating apps

- The dangers of accelerationism

- Teaching the humanities in 2025