The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance

Tech Billionaires vs. The COVID-19 Pandemic: Dave Asprey hosts Tech Journalist Kara Swisher : 693

Apr 28, 2020

Kara Swisher, a prominent tech journalist and host of Recode Decode and Pivot, dives into the intersection of technology and the COVID-19 pandemic. She discusses the critical need for diversity in tech leadership and the struggles women and minorities face in the industry. The conversation also critiques the philanthropy of tech billionaires, weighing its impact against government responsibility in healthcare. Additionally, they explore the concept of 'human downgrading' and the addictive nature of technology, stressing the importance of human connection amid digital distractions.

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ANECDOTE

Asprey's Family of Geeks

Dave Asprey comes from a family of "girl geeks", including a grandmother who was a PhD engineer at Los Alamos and aunts involved in computer science at Stanford and Vassar.
Despite this lineage, he acknowledges the scarcity of women at senior levels in tech, prompting a discussion with Kara Swisher about the challenges women face in the industry.

INSIGHT

Stagnant Diversity in Tech

Despite some individual successes, the overall representation of women in tech leadership and engineering roles has not significantly improved.
Kara Swisher emphasizes that achieving diversity requires intentional effort and overcoming the tendency to prioritize comfort and existing patterns.

ANECDOTE

Twitter's All-Male Board

Kara Swisher recounts a story about criticizing Twitter's all-male board, highlighting the double standard applied to women and people of color in leadership positions.
She uses the humorous anecdote of the board having "two Peters and a Dick" to emphasize the lack of diversity and challenge the notion of qualifications being the sole barrier.

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In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, my guest is one of the most revered tech journalists in the U.S. technology space. Kara Swisher is a contributing writer to the New York Times Opinion section and appears weekly on NBC. We get into tech impacts, human downgrading, and how Covid-19 has created shifts and opportunities in the tech community.

She’s executive producer of the Code Conference, an annual event that brings together a global community of the biggest tech names in the business to explore current and future impact of digital technology. She also hosts the podcast Recode: Decode and co-hosts the podcast Pivot. Both shows dive into many aspects of the tech world with sharp insight.

Kara’s experience in tech spans nearly 30 years where she’s been watching it unfold—in all its glory and ugliness. She’s tackled tough topics and raised hard questions within the industry. A few things we talk about in this episode:

Big tech: “I still feel like this idea that we need these big giant tech companies that control everything is a real problem for innovation,” she says. “I've always thought the way we get to any solution to anything is a diversity of opinion, a diversity of efforts, a diversity of small companies being on a plane where they can compete with larger companies.”

Tech Diversity: “But you're still a rare being, being a woman or a person of color running or being in a significant position of power at a tech company,” she says.

Tech Billionaire Philanthropy: “Where's the accountability?” she says. “Where's the decision making as a society? Where's all of us deciding together what we want rather than a small group of people, who may or may not have good motives.”

Tech’s Space Roots: “You're either a Star Trek person or a Star Wars person. I would like to be a Star Trek person, but I fear we live in a Star Wars universe.”

Enjoy the show!

Catch my Instagram Live with Kara here. And get more resources at Dave.Asprey/podcasts.

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