The Singularity Discussion Series

Today we’re going to talk about how access to water and food impacts global education with Carmen Burbano de Lara, Director of School Feeding for the World Food Programme, and Georgie Badiel, CEO and Founder of the Georgie Badiel Foundation. Access to food and clean water enables millions of children globally to be able to attend school. Today, we’ll talk about what this means for humanity now and in the future, and how listeners can take action and get involved.

This week our guest is David Brin, renowned science fiction author of dozens of short stories and novels, including The Postman, which was adapted to film and starred Kevin Costner, as well as the Uplift series, which centers around the theme of genetically engineering pre-sapient species such as chimpanzees and dolphins to a human level of intelligence. While science fiction is what he’s known for, David shows us that the real power of storytelling is that it makes us students of history and allows us to use the wisdom therein to navigate the future. To this end, a great deal of this conversation centers around understanding human culture through time. Amongst other ideas, David specifically emphasizes that for the sake of progress and inclusion, we must shift from a zero-sum mentality to a positive sum mentality and in the process embrace criticism. Works referenced in this discussion:  Robert Wright's book: Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny  David's advice to new authors: http://www.davidbrin.com/advice.htm David's exploration of our Transparent Society.  The trailer for David's book EXISTENCE. - Want to learn more about our podcasts and become a part of the community? Join here! Host: Steven Parton // Music by: Amine el Filali

We all know about the all-too-familiar retail apocalypse that led to closures of many brick-and-mortar chains due to the ‘08 financial crisis and the e-commerce boom, but it’s not over yet. In this episode, we talk about shifts in consumer behavior, how retailers should cope with the current pandemic and how they can prepare for the future. Meet our guests: V. “Paddy” Padmanabhan is the Unilever Professor of Marketing, INSEAD-Singapore and Academic Director of the Emerging Markets Institute, INSEAD. His current research focuses on Business Opportunities and Challenges in Developing Economies, Economic Crises and their implications, Pricing and Supply Chain Management. He is among the top 250 most highly cited scholars in the world in Economics and Business. Molly Hartney comes with more than 10+ years of retail experience as a results-driven executive leader, known for scaling businesses quickly with a unique mix of driving strategy, building talent, and leveraging a customer-centric approach. She most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer and SVP Digital with Funko. Prior to that she spent 8 years in various leadership positions at Lowe’s Home Improvement. Get the Show Notes Season One of the podcast is in partnership with INSEAD.

For many, balancing work and home life is always a challenge, but now, due to Covid-19, work and home are more intertwined than ever. This can be fun for some, overwhelming for others and downright stressful for many. In this episode, Kyle Nel discusses strategies to balance both work and home life with Jennifer Petriglieri & Karen Tay. Get the Show Notes Meet our guests! Jennifer Petriglieri is an associate professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD and the author of Couples That Work: How Dual-Career Couples Can Thrive in Love and Work. Her recent Survival Series is a free online course to help working couples navigate the COVID crisis. Karen Tay is Smart Nation Director (North America) at the Singapore Prime Minister's Office and Regional Vice President in the Singapore Global Network. In addition, Tay is a faculty member here at SU, where she teaches business executives, global organizations, policy-makers, and startup founders on topics at the intersection of tech and the public good, including the future of governance, smart cities, and technology policy. Season One of the podcast is in partnership with INSEAD.

Singularity University presents the Principle, Meet Practice podcast! Season one is sponsored by our good friends over at INSEAD and focus' on Managing through Uncertainty. Join your host, Kyle Nel, and experts from SU, INSEAD and leading organizations for bi-weekly discussions on what actions society, enterprise, and individuals can take to manage chaos and stay ahead of the growing exponential curve. Each episode will feature an expert on theory and a practitioner discuss a specific topic -- from the future of retail to the education crisis.

This week our guest is Toby Ord, a senior researcher at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, where he focuses on existential risk. Toby recently released his book Precipice: Existential Risk & the Future of Humanity, which explores the many threats capable not only of ending human civilization, but even causing our entire species to go extinct. It may seem like an unrealistic concern out of a sci-fi movie, but Toby suggests humanity has roughly a 1 in 6 chance of destroying ourselves within the next century. In this episode, we discuss how Toby arrived at this number and the deeper details of the threats that are facing us, with a particular focus on biotech and artificial intelligence, which Toby views as the most prominent areas of concern. Want to learn more about our podcasts and become a part of the community? Join here! Host: Steven Parton // Music by: Amine el Filali

This week our guest is Dr. David Eagleman: renowned Stanford neuroscience professor, author of 8 books, and CEO and co-founder of NeoSensory, a company specializing in creating sensory substitution devices. In this conversation, we'll be exploring his 2020 novel, Livewired, where he examines and redefines the idea of neuroplasticity--the brain’s ability to rewire itself as we experience the world around us. We'll also go in depth on the newest devices from his company, https://neosensory.com/, which use vibrations to help people with health issues and potentially even unlock new senses. If you're curious how to optimize your brain health and want to know more about the future of human senses, this one's for you. Want to learn more about our podcasts and become a part of the community? Join here! Host: Steven Parton // Music by: Amine el Filali

This week our guest is Dr. Diana Fleischman, an evolutionary psychologist and active member of the effective altruism community.  We explore a range of topics, including social engineering, our evolutionary relationship with technology and language, effective altruism, and using the concept of Skinner boxes to create systems for ourselves that condition us towards better behaviors. You can find more of Dr. Fleischman's work at her website: Dianaverse. And if you want to learn more about our podcasts and become a part of our 30,000+ member community, join here! Host: Steven Parton // Music by: Amine el Filali

This week our guest is Renee DiResta, the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, a cross-disciplinary team exploring the abuse of our current information technologies. Specifically, Renee investigates the spread of narratives and propaganda across social networks such as pseudoscience conspiracies, terrorist activity, and state-sponsored information warfare. We focused heavily on these topics during our conversation, exploring how Renee’s interest was first piqued by the anti-vaxxer community, how Redditors impacted the stock market with Gamestop, Russias involvement in the 2016 American presidential election, the potential consequences of a certified digital ID, and more. Want to learn more about our podcasts and become a part of the community? Join here! Host: Steven Parton // Music by: Amine el Filali

This week our guest is William Von Hippel, a social psychologist who teaches at the University of Queensland in Australia, and author of the 2018 novel, the Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy. We explore how the challenges of our evolutionary past shaped many of the most fundamental aspects of our behavior in the modern day, traversing a journey from several million years ago to the present day. Along the way we touch heavily on many topics, including, but certainly not limited to, our evolutionary mismatch with the modern environment, why humans innovate the way we do, and different leadership styles that are rooted in evolutionary responses to hierarchy. Want to learn more about our podcasts and become a part of the community? Join here! Host: Steven Parton // Music by: Amine el Filali