3 Takeaways

Jason Kelly, co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks, discusses harnessing nature by reading and writing DNA to program cells for various industries. Topics include animal-free meat production, evolution from biotechnology to synthetic biology, diverse applications in agriculture and pharmaceuticals, and democratizing biology for a diverse workforce.

Laughter, it turns out, is not primarily a response to humor. Neuroscientist Sophie Scott CBE shares why we laugh, how it works and the many sins it covers. We explore how laughter bonds us, where it breaks us, and the ways we use it. We should all bring a greater sense of understanding and intention to our laughter. Sophie Scott is a neuroscientist and professor at UCL whose research focuses on the science of laughter.  

The president of Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO), which manages Princeton’s endowment, talks about investing in today’s world. Andy Golden shares how he selects partners, evaluates investments, and creates a winning environment. PRINCO recently earned nearly a 50% return in a single year. Andy also explores the differences in long term and short term investing and how a ten year time horizon is short term for endowments. PRINCO is one of the highest performing endowments in the world.

Dr. Eric Topol explains how we can prepare for the next pandemic, including having stockpiles of variant proof vaccines for the families that are most likely to cause pandemics besides coronavirus and influenza. He also shares recent breakthroughs in medicine which will improve accuracy and diagnosis.Dr. Topol is the founder of Scripps Research. 

David Gergen, White House Advisor to four presidents, warns us about our failing democracy. He shares how our current government has moved from being able to work across the aisle to create win-win outcomes to creating a win-lose environment stoked by an environment of anger. He reminds us that Millennials and Gen Z are capable and available to step up to the plate if we would just let them, and gives us insights into what makes great leaders. David Gergen has advised both Republican and Democratic presidents including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. He is currently a senior political analyst at CNN and professor at Harvard. His newest book is Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made.This podcast is available on all major podcast streaming platforms. Did you enjoy this episode? Consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts.Receive updates on upcoming guests and more in our weekly e-mail newsletter. Subscribe today at www.3takeaways.com  

Just as there was nothing inevitable about WW1 which came about because of flawed decisions by political and military leaders, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd worries that mutual non-comprehension and deep suspicion may lead the US and China into war. He believes that an armed conflict between China and the US is a real possibility. The Chinese Communist Party would see itself as fighting for its very survival in a war and a conventional war could easily escalate into one involving weapons of mass destruction, if Chinese forces begin to lose.Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has studied and lived in China and has worked with China’s leaders, including Xi Jinping, for decades. His new book is The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict Between the US and Xi Jinping’s China. 

Power is easier to get, harder to use and easier to lose. Moises Naim explores how power is changing across all sectors of society. Power has shifted from country leaders to public squares, large companies to start-ups, and large armies to insurgents. Being in charge isn’t what it used to be! But at the same time, power is also concentrating in some sectors. Autocrats are reinventing politics and gaining power using 21st century tools - populism, polarization and post-truths - and undermining democracies around the world. Moises Naim is a Venezuelan journalist and former editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine. He was Minister of Trade and Industry for Venezuela, director of Venezuela’s Central Bank, and executive director of the World Bank. He is the author of The End of Power and The Revenge of Power.

President Santos received the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing Colombia's more than 50 year civil war to an end. His unique and humble leadership style allowed him to pivot from being a hawk to a dove on war, and this change is mirrored in his transition from climate change denier to climate change fighter.  These 180 degree pivots are unprecedented for a world leader.He describes the almost impossible challenges he faced ending a civil war with millions of victims, and delves into how he was ultimately able to broker peace. He led the war as a war hero and negotiated peace as president. His monumental accomplishments are inspired by the heartbreaking stories of victims.

Fortune Media CEO Alan Murray shares the dramatic changes in business today due to the tech revolution, which is disrupting so many businesses, and the purpose revolution which is causing companies to re-think what they should be doing. He believes that fundamental changes in the ways businesses operate today are forcing them to pay more attention to people and the planet. It used to be that 80% of the value of the Fortune 500 came from physical assets but now over 85% of the value is intangible assets including intellectual property, software, brand value and the human emotional connection that comes from brand value.  Since intangibles, which is where the value lies today, are things that are much more closely tied to people - it's human ingenuity that creates the intellectual property, it's human emotion that creates the brand value and the brand connection -  business leaders are paying much more attention to people. Alan shares how that is changing the purpose of corporations and the role of the CEO today. He also talks about how business has changed due to the pandemic, remote work, Black Lives Matter, rising inequality, global warming and the Ukraine Russia war.Unless businesses are responsive to their employees, their customers and their communities, Alan believes they will lose. The biggest changes, he says, are yet to come. His new book is Tomorrow’s Capitalist.

Robert A.M. Stern, who designs the most sought after buildings in the world, shares how he sees architecture and design, and what makes his buildings so special that they regularly set records for the highest price per square foot, even when they're not in the best neighborhoods. He explains how his buildings are informed by the past but situated in the future, how he sees detail and ornament as the grace notes of architecture, and how he favors second glance architecture, as opposed to “screamers”.  The new J.P. Morgan building going up in New York City, he says, is “a screamer on Park Avenue and [may] be the final death of that once noble and coherent boulevard.” He also shares what and why he wants “to connect” and how making a building is a symphony.