The Etan Ilfeld Podcast

This interview took place on March 13, 2024. David Lynch is a writer and director of groundbreaking films like Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. In this interview, he discusses the power of Transcendental Meditation (TM), which he's done every day for over 50 years. He also shares his outlook on life and synchronicity. His creative endeavours include building and designing furniture, recording a solo album, and much more. This interview also references his autobiography Room to Dream published in 2017.

Stephen Wolfram and Etan Ilfeld discuss the future of AI, open source vs proprietary software, and the evolution of culture. They explore AI-generated art, the significance of deeply understanding science and technology, and the balance between predictability and innovation in life. Dive into computational experiments using Rule 30 and ruliology, showcasing the open nature of discovery in the computational universe.

Many have studied it, written about it and even died for it and yet, it appears, we are mostly blind to the essence of love. Dr Liat Yakir takes us on a fascinating journey through the evolution of love in history and in modern times, showing the importance of hormones, neurons and genes that dictate who we’ll fall in love with and who we’ll reject. A Brief History of Love is Dr Liat Yakir's first book.

Masayuki "Mochy" Mochizuki, a two-time Backgammon World Champion and acclaimed strategist, shares his passion for backgammon as a tool for learning and growth. He discusses the influence of AI on gaming and evaluates its role compared to human intuition. Mochy delves into balancing a nomadic tournament lifestyle with family commitments, highlighting their shared love of games. The conversation also touches on income sources for professional players and the importance of fitness and focus in tournaments, making for a captivating exploration of life both on and off the backgammon board.

Uri Levine is the founder of Waze and Moovit, and one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs. In this interview with Etan Ilfeld, he gives you the ultimate guide to starting and running a business. He is also the author of Fall in Love with the Problem Not the Solution, which is published by Watkins. As the cofounder of Waze – the world's leading commuting and navigation app with more than 700 million users to date, and which Google acquired in 2013 for $1.15 billion – Levine is committed to spreading entrepreneurial thinking so that other founders, managers, and employees in the tech space can build their own highly valued companies. Levine offers an inside look at the creation and sale of Waze and his second unicorn, Moovit, revealing the formula that drove those companies to compete with industry veterans and giants alike. He offers tips on: Raising funding Firing and hiring Understanding your users Making up-scale decisions Going global Deciding when to sell Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution offers mentorship in a book from one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and empowers you to build a successful business by identifying your consumers' biggest problems and disrupting the inefficient markets that currently serve them.

Tony Buzan believed that anyone can improve their memory, creativity, reading speed and spiritual intelligence. He developed mind mapping as a learning tool, co-founded the memory world championship, the mind sports olympiad, and the mind, body and spirit festival. He also managed to write over eighty books and was the editor of the International Journal of Mensa! His last book, Mind Mapping 2.0, was also a bestseller and has already been translated into 19 languages. Tony past away in 2019, at the age of 76 but not before leaving a very positive impact on the world. The interview you’re about to hear was recorded in 2016.

Oliver Roeder is a journalist in New York City. Recently, he has been a senior writer at FiveThirtyEight and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Roeder holds a PhD in economics with a focus on game theory, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Economist, Slate, Nautilus, Aeon and elsewhere. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human. This interview includes the development of AIs in games, and classic games such as Go, Checkers (aka Draughts), Bridge, Poker, Chess, Backgammon,  and Scrabble.

Julia Cameron is often referred to as the High Priestess of creativity and has authored more than forty books. Her best-selling title is called The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path To Higher Creativity, and has sold over five million copies and has been translated into over forty languages. Julia is also a poet, songwriter, filmmaker, and playwright. She really can do it all. Join me for this inspiring conversation on how to unleash your creative potential! https://juliacameronlive.com/

Ben Pridmore is a three-time World Memory Champion winning the title 2004, 2008 and 2009. From Derby in the United Kingdom, Pridmore achieved this by winning a 10-discipline competition, the World Memory Championship, which has taken place every year since 1991. He has also earned the prestigious title of Master of Memory. Ben has an IQ of 159 putting him in the genius range. He held the official world record for memorizing the order of a randomly shuffled 52-card deck, and has memorised a pack in a time of 24.68 seconds on television. This record was beaten in 2010 by German memory athlete and lawyer Simon Reinhard. Pridmore's victory at the 2009 World Championship was his eighth consecutive memory competition win since coming second at the 2007 World Championship. He is the title holder for the UK Memory Champion for the years 2007–2011 and 2013 and Welsh Open Memory Champion 2009–2012 and 2014. Besides memory sports he is famous for his mental calculation skills and took part in the Mental Calculation World Cup in 2004, 2006 and 2010. He has also won several medals at the Mind Sports Olympiad including becoming the 2001 World Champion at the ten disciplined mind sport competition the decamentathlon including also chess and reversi.

Liara Roux is a sex worker, political organizer, writer and artist. She also writes comics, stars in porn and has become a prominent emerging voice. Her recently published memoir, Whore of New York has received a glowing New York Times review and she has recently been interviewed by Vogue and VICE. She's brilliant, charismatic and a truly independent thinker.