In this episode, evolutionary biochemist, professor and writer Nick Lane joins us to talk about how life evolves from an energy flow perspective. Nick Lane’s research is on the way that energy flow has shaped evolution over 4 billion years, using a mixture of theoretical and experimental work to address the origin of life, the evolution of complex cells and downright peculiar behaviour such as sex. We dive deep into the origin of life and early evolution: hydrothermal vents, the krebs cycle which is a cycle of reactions that uses energy to transform inorganic molecules into the building blocks of life and the reverse, and the importance of vents having an electrical charge, co2, hydrogen, and a system that converts gasses. Additionally we talk about the eukaryotic cell and multicellularity in the origin of animals. Dive in! And learn how life evolves from an amazing biochemist perspective! SUPPORT US ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/rhyslindmark JOIN OUR DISCORD: https://discord.gg/PDAPkhNxrC Who is Nick Lane? Nick Lane is Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London. He was a founding member of the UCL Consortium for Mitochondrial Research, and is Co-Director of the UCL Centre for Life’s Origin and Evolution (CLOE). Lane is the author of five acclaimed books on evolutionary biochemistry. His most recent book is Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death. Topics: Welcome Nick Lane to The Rhys Show!: (00:00:00) Goal for listeners: (00:02:14) How Nick thinks about the world before life: (00:02:58) Thoughts about the big bang period between 14 billion and 4 billion years ago from a biochemist lens: (00:07:44) How did life start?: (00:10:39) More about energy is first, krebs cycle is first and metabolism is first: (00:17:56) Biology overtime: how Nick thinks about those 4 billion years to us and how energy plays a role in it: (00:38:10) Wrap-up & about aging and how these electrical charges on membrane rundown: (00:55:26) Nick Lane’s books: Oxygen: The molecule that made the world: https://nick-lane.net/books/oxygen-the-molecule-that-made-the-world/ Power, sex, suicide: Mitochondria and the meaning of life: https://nick-lane.net/books/power-sex-suicide-mitochondria-meaning-life/ Life ascending: The ten great inventions of evolution: https://nick-lane.net/books/life-ascending-the-ten-great-inventions-of-evolution/ The vital question. Why is life the way it is?: https://nick-lane.net/books/the-vital-question-why-is-life-the-way-it-is/ Transformer: The deep chemistry of life and death: https://nick-lane.net/books/transformer-the-deep-chemistry-of-life-and-death/ Connect with Nick Lane: Personal Web: https://nick-lane.net/

In this episode, political science professors Jessica Trounstine & Omar Wasow join us to talk about how we can improve housing, build more housing and the history of racial segregation housing. Jessica’s work studies the process and quality of representation in American democracy. She is focused on the ways in which formal and informal local political institutions generate inequalities. She has served as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice, city governments, and various community organizations; and serves on numerous editorial and foundation boards. Omar’s research focuses on race, politics and statistical methods. His paper on the political consequences of the 1960s civil rights movement was published in the American Political Science Review. His co-authored work on estimating causal effects of race was published in the Annual Review of Political Science. We dive deep into the history of redlining of America till present day with the building of coalitions like YIMBY, how the racist past models current land use decisions, how those coalitions might be changing in the future and how we can use them to build bundles of housing that bring coalitions together to build more housing. Dive in! Jessica & Omar share tons of knowledge that will help you understand the history of housing, law and race in time! SUPPORT US ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/rhyslindmark JOIN OUR DISCORD: https://discord.gg/PDAPkhNxrC Who is Jessica Trounstine? Jessica is the Foundation Board of Trustees Presidential Chair and a professor of political science at the University of California, Merced. She is the author of two award winning books, Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities and Political Monopolies in American Cities: The Rise and Fall of Bosses and Reformers. Who is Omar Wasow? Omar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley. He received a PhD in African American Studies, an MA in Government and an MA in Statistics from Harvard University. Previously, he co-founded BlackPlanet.com and the Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School. Topics: Welcome Jessica Trounstine & Omar Wasow to The Rhys Show!: (00:00:00) Goal for listeners: (00:01:50) About mid-twentieth century process of suburbanization in USA and how laws lead to segregation: (00:02:00) About laws that made segregation emerge: (00:06:21) About “Agenda seeding” and what leads to backlash style of thinking: (00:14:37) How to prevent gentrification with new development: (00:22:56) Rent control debate: (00:37:24) Overrated & underrated questions: (00:44:44) Wrap-up: (00:47:23) Mentioned resources: “Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities” Book by Jessica Trounstine: https://www.amzn.com/1108454984 “Six Faces of Globalization: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why It Matters Book by Anthea Roberts & Nicolas Lamp: https://www.amzn.com/0674245954 “Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America” Book by Conor Dougherty: https://www.amzn.com/0525560211

In this episode, Shruti Gandhi joins us to talk about how data is being used to generate insights for humanity and the backend infrastructure to power that. Shruti Gandhi is the Founder and Managing Partner of Array Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund that focuses on solving pressing problems in large industries using data, AI, and ML. Shruti has investments in over 60 early stage companies with 6 exits to companies such as Apple, PayPal, ServiceNow, and The We Company. We dive deep into what the world of AI, ML and data look like for the last ten years, what it will look like going into the future and what she is working on today. Furthermore Shruti helps us understand how data aggregation provides insights, how machine learning is being used, big data platforms, and how publicly traded companies fight against these big data platforms and compete against emerging startups. “My life is my message” - Shruti Gandhi If you have technical talent and are planning to do something cool, dive in! This one's for you! SUPPORT US ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/rhyslindmark JOIN OUR DISCORD: https://discord.gg/PDAPkhNxrC Who is Shruti Gandhi? Shruti Gandhi is the Founder and Managing Partner of Array Ventures. She has investments in over 60 early stage companies with 6 exits to companies such as Apple, PayPal, ServiceNow, and The We Company and has a strong background in engineering. Topics: Welcome Shruti Gandhi to The Rhys Show!: (00:00:00) Goal for listeners: (00:02:29) What made Shruti find her fire & moment she decided what she wanted: (00:02:42) What Shruti has been working on in the past: Array, AI, ML & data: (00:09:02) Technical backend of Placer.ai: what company was building & how did they leverage data: (00:12:04) Technical backend of Unacast: (00:18:24) Core patterns underneath both platforms: (00:23:51) About data privacy & security: (00:26:53) Why TikTok is in the same category as GAFA: (00:31:16) How publicly traded companies fight against GAFA and compete against emerging startups: (00:33:31) What Shruti looks for in founders & how she likes to support them: (00:44:02) Overrated & underrated questions: (00:45:35) Wrap-up: (00:47:34) Mentioned resources: Placer.ai: https://www.placer.ai/ Unacast: https://www.unacast.com/products/foot-traffic-data Connect with Shruti Gandhi: Twitter: https://twitter.com/atShruti Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shrutigandhi/ Array VC Web: https://array.vc/ Substack: https://substack.com/profile/5304471-shruti-gandhi

Sonja Trauss, co-founder of the YIMBY movement, talks about the history and future of the movement, including their wins in building more abundant and affordable housing. The podcast also covers the use of law to drive positive outcomes, the challenges cities face with housing, and the importance of addressing the housing crisis in the Bay Area.

In this episode, Kat Woods joins us to talk about impact for charities over time and how to create incubation ecosystems and angel ecosystems for them. Kat is the co-founder of several entrepreneurial ecosystems in effective altruism. Effective altruism (EA) is a research field and practical community that looks for the best ways to help others, and put them into practice. It is about prioritizing our efforts when doing good, so we can help others as much as we can. We dive deep into the journey all the way from the start of EA where there is no incubation to this new reality where there is charity entrepreneurship incubating fantastic ideas for possible impact in the world. We also talk about how we can create networks of people and capital to allocate it towards impactful things in the world, what Kat means by passive income and the AI Safety community. If you want to make a positive impact in the world, dive in! You will learn how to make a difference by setting up passively-impactful projects that continue to positively affect the world even when you’ve moved on to other things. SUPPORT US ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/rhyslindmark JOIN OUR DISCORD: https://discord.gg/PDAPkhNxrC Who is Kat Woods? Kat Woods has been full-time in EA for 10 years, her entire adult life, and organized one of the first EAGs. Kat is the president and co-founder of Nonlinear, a long termist EA incubator and Superlinear, a platform which hosts competitions to solve X-Risk problems (with some pretty huge prizes). And is a contributor to the intellectual sphere of the community EA Forum Library. She has also co-founded Charity Entrepreneurship, an incubator that has launched 18 Charities so far and Charity Science Health, now Suvita, which has helped vaccinate over 200,000 children, Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/rhysshow YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5d2HmCVZ_12TRkyRp-I0Mw Connect with Kat Woods: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kat__woods Nonlinear.org: https://www.nonlinear.org/about.html

In this episode Jan Voelkel, Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at Stanford University and also a member of the Polarization and Social Change Lab, joins us to talk about how to decrease polarization and run mega studies. Jan is the leading author of “The Strengthening Democracy Challenge” a mega study which brought academics, practitioners, and industry experts together in a collective effort to identify effective interventions to improve Americans’ commitment to democratic principles of political engagement. If Polarization is a worry, then in this chapter you will find hope. You will learn about the kind of memetic engineering we can do as a society to nudge us towards a less polarized and more positive reality and you will discover a way to do these beautiful mega studies. We talk about polarization, how to decrease polarization, The Strengthening Democracy Challenge mega study, implementing this mega study into social media platforms and partisan animosity vs. support for anti democratic practices. Dive in! You will discover two ads that went viral intending to decrease polarization! SUPPORT US ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/rhyslindmark JOIN OUR DISCORD: https://discord.gg/PDAPkhNxrC Who is Jan Voelkel? Jan is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at Stanford University and also a member of the Polarization and Social Change Lab. Jan studies political persuasion, group conflicts, and meta-science. Jan Voelkel aims to identify the endogenous and exogenous factors that divide ideologically dissimilar groups, design and test interventions that enable more constructive discourse about moral and political issues and examine new ways to increase the reproducibility of scientific findings. Topics: Welcome Jan Voelkel to The Rhys Show!: (00:00:00) The importance of making a better social media ecosystem: (00:02:43) The Strengthening Democracy Challenge: overall setup & lessons learned: (00:03:38) Key patterns of the interventions that worked for people: (00:09:55) Partisan animosity vs. support for anti democratic practices: (00:13:45) Implementing “The Strengthening Democracy challenge” learnings into social media platforms: (00:27:33) An optimal version of what a new feed should look like: (00:32:45) Why are we in this hyperpolarized place & how to escape from it: (00:38:07) From a sociological perspective: what is going on that is making people polarized & decreasing the partisan animosity: (00:43:05) Recommendations for those who want to run mega study: (00:46:25) Overrated or underrated?: (00:52:07) Wrap-up: (00:54:37) Mentioned resources: Heineken ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3a8MdloAAM Political rivals in Utah ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vLo_KJLJgE Connect with Jan Voelkel: PASCL Standford Web: https://www.pascl.stanford.edu/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jgvoelkel The Strengthening Democracy Challenge: https://www.strengtheningdemocracychallenge.org/

Kinjal Shah, a Partner at Blockchain Capital, discusses the current state and future of Web 3.0 in the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. They explore the differences in content and value creation, the role of social tokens and DAOs, and the missing pieces needed for Web 3.0. The conversation also touches on data availability, labor vs capital, NFTs, and inclusivity in the crypto world.

Anthea Roberts, an expert in international law and globalization, discusses the six narratives driving debates about globalization and proposes ways to bring people together. The importance of seeing the world from different perspectives and becoming a system thinker is emphasized. The podcast covers topics such as complexity, bridging connections, visualizing ideas, identity and globalization, China's role in globalization, and future population distribution.

In this episode, physical anthropologist and archaeologist Chris Stringer joins us to explore fossil records and what they tell us about the birth of our species and its staying power on Earth. Chris is known as one of the leading proponents of the “Recent African Origins” hypothesis, which is currently the most widely accepted model for the origin of our species. This hypothesis is that the modern form of Homo sapiens and human behavior had evolved in Africa by at least 150,000 years ago. Around 60,000 years ago, modern humans left Africa, replacing archaic hominins outside of the continent with restricted amounts of interbreeding. We dive deep into the whole story from 7MM years ago to the Neolithic revolution and to us as lone survivors. He talks about the last 500 thousand years when lots of homo species were existing at the same time and the behavioral and cognitive traits that distinguished current Homo sapiens from other anatomically modern humans. Additionally we talk about fossils, what evidence they are providing in regards to human evolution and where they are found. Stringer looks ahead on ideas from a historical fossil perspective and shares the importance of fossil protein that can take us beyond ancient DNA and provide us with more information about how Homo sapiens came to be. SUPPORT US ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/rhyslindmark JOIN OUR DISCORD: https://discord.gg/PDAPkhNxrC Who is Chris Stringer? Professor Chris Stringer is a Research Leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum of London and is the co-director of the follow-up Pathways to Ancient Britain project. He studied anthropology at University College London and holds a PhD in Anatomical Science, and a DSc in Anatomical Science both from Bristol University. Stringer is author of many scientific papers and books, here are a few to mention: Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth, Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story & Our Human Story. Stay tuned for his upcoming book! Topics: Welcome Chris Stringer to The Rhys Show!: (00:00:00) Putting in context: understand time period from 7MM years ago through twelve thousand years ago: (00:02:11) The story from 7MM years ago to the Neolithic revolution: (00:03:13) Reason for walking upright: (00:08:03) Transition from Australopithecines to humans: (00:11:30) The story from 2MM years ago: about Homo erectus and Homo luzonensis the dwarf species: (00:15:10) From 2MM years ago to 200 thousand years ago: How did Homo Sapiens emerge and the oldest human dna recovered : (00:20:03) What makes us different in the skeleton compared to other humans: (00:26:12) About Denisovans: Discovery of Homo Longi “Dragon Man” in China: (00:27:42) About Denisovans: discovery of the whole genome of a new kind of human in Siberia and the Neanderthal & Denisovan hybrid: (00:31:15) Behavioral modernity and the beginning of language: (00:35:53) 60000 years ago: what cultural evolution looked like back then and how ideas spread: (00:42:03) Thoughts on gene-culture coevolution: (00:46:38) Looking ahead on ideas from a historical fossil perspective: (00:48:12) Overrated & underrated questions about fire, tools and being in groups: (00:49:42) Wrap-up: (00:51:35) Mentioned resources: Archaeological site of Atapuerca: https://www.britannica.com/place/Atapuerca Story of “Dragon Man” skull discovery in the river Songhua, Harbin, 1933: https://answersingenesis.org/human-evolution/dragon-man-newest-human-cousin/ Connect with Chris Stringer: Web Natural History Museum: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/departments-and-staff/staff-directory/chris-stringer.html Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisstringer65

In this episode Kanjun Qiu, the CEO and co-founder of Generally Intelligent joins us to chat about replicators, Genes, Memes and “Temes”, talk about what her company does and help us understand the fundamentals of learning across humans and machines. SUPPORT US ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/rhyslindmark JOIN OUR DISCORD: https://discord.gg/PDAPkhNxrC Who is Kanjun Qiu? Kanjun Qiu is the CEO and co-founder of Generally Intelligent, an AI research company working directly on human-like general intelligence. Previously she co-founded and was CEO of Sourceress, an AI recruiting company that went through YC and raised $13M. Prior to Sourceress, Kanjun grew Dropbox from 300 to 1500 people as the Chief of Staff after college, and was fortunate to get the equivalent of a business school education along the way. She co-founded and lived at The Archive and co-authored Sew Electric, a book that teaches kids programming using sewable electronics. Kanjun was recognized as the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 Featured Honoree in Enterprise Technology. She has a bachelor’s and master's degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and worked as a graduate researcher at the MIT Media Lab.