Brave New World -- hosted by Vasant Dhar

He came to America as a ten-year old, and became invested in both the country and its world of finance. Vlad Barbalat joins Vasant Dhar in episode 84 of Brave New World to discuss his life and learnings. Useful resources: 1. Vlad Barbalat on LinkedIn and Liberty Mutual Investments. 2. The Story Of My Experiments With Truth -- MK Gandhi. 3. The Coddling of the American Mind -- Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. 4. The Future of Liberal Education -- Episode 11 of Brave New World (w Michael S Roth). Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

He has been a driver of change at Transport for London, which has shown the way to the rest of the world. Shashi Verma joins Vasant Dhar in Episode 83 of Brave New World to share his learnings on urban transport -- and the governance structures that lead to the best results. Useful resources: 1. Shashi Verma on LinkedIn and Centre for London. 2. Albert Wenger on the World After Capital — Episode 29 of Brave New World. 3. Estimating the Social Benefit of Constructing an Underground Railway in London -- CD Foster and ME Beesley. 4. A History of London Transport -- TV Barker and Michael Robbins. 5. The Subterranean Railway --  Christian Wolmar. 6. Evaluating Urban Transport Improvements -- Anthony J Venables. 7. Agglomeration, Productivity and Transport Investment -- Daniel J Graham. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

How much blame should we put on social media for polarizing our society? Perhaps not as much as we tend to do. Joshua A Tucker joins Vasant Dhar in episode 82 of Brave New World to discuss his studies on the effects of social media -- and the algorithms that run them.    Useful resources: 1. Joshua Tucker at NYU, Twitter and Google Scholar. 2. Online searches to evaluate misinformation can increase its perceived veracity -- Kevin Aslett, Zeve Sanderson, William Godel, Nathaniel Persily, Jonathan Nagler & Joshua A Tucker. 3. Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook -- Andrew Guess, Jonathan Nagler and Joshua A Tucker. 4. Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing -- Chris Bail. 5. Chris Bail on How to Fight Polarization -- Episode 34 of Brave New World. 6. The Social Media Industrial Complex -- Episode 3 of Brave New World (w Sinan Aral). 7. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). 8. Quantifying the Impact of Misinformation and Vaccine-Skeptical Content on Facebook -- Jennifer Nancy Lee Allen, Duncan J Watts, and David Rand. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Smell is the most underrated of our senses -- and it affects everything. Alex Wiltschko joins Vasant Dhar in episode 81 of Brave New World to discuss the role of smell in our lives -- and in this new digital age. Useful resources: 1. Alex Wiltschko on LinkedIn, Google Ventures, Google Scholar and Twitter. 2. Osmo. 3. Perfumes: The A-Z Guide -- Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. 4.  Perfume: The Story of a Murderer -- Patrick Suskind. 5. The Mystery of Smell -- Lydialyle Gibson on Sandeep Robert Datta. 6. A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: a molecular basis for odor recognition -- Linda Buck and Richard Axel. 7. Metabolic activity organizes olfactory representations -- Wesley W Qian et al (including Alex  Wiltschko.) 8. Hyperbolic geometry of the olfactory space -- Yuansheng Zhou, Brian H Smith & Tatyana Sharpee. 9. Odor Perception and the Variability in Natural Odor Scenes -- Geraldine A Wright and Mitchell G.A. Thomson. 10. The Biological Sense of Smell -- Christine WJ Chee-Ruiter. 11. Also check out the work of Jim DiCarlo, David Marr and Eero Simoncelli. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Given what we know of physics and neuroscience, can there be free will? Kevin Mitchell, a neuroscientist himself, joins Vasant Dhar in episode 80 of Brave New World to unpack his argument for the existence of free will. Useful resources 1. Kevin Mitchell on Amazon, Twitter, Trinity College, Google Scholar, his blog and his homepage. 2. Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will -- Kevin Mitchell. 3. Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are -- Kevin Mitchell. 4. Freedom Evolves -- Daniel Dennett. 5. Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will -- Robert Sapolsky. 6. Free Will -- Sam Harris. 7. Daniel Kahneman on How Noise Hampers Judgement -- Episode 21 of Brave New World. 8. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment -- Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein. 9. Synthetic Biology -- J Craig Ventor Institute. 10. David Krakauer. 11. David Krakauer on Complexity, Agency, and Information -- Episode 242 of Sean Carroll's Mindscape. 12. Anthony Zador on How our Brains Work — Episode 35 of Brave New World. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Artificial intelligence is transforming society. And therefore politics. Arthur Spirling joins Vasant Dhar in episode 79 of Brave New World to share his insights from his twin fields of data science and political science. Useful resources: 1. Arthur Spirling at Princeton, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and his own website. 2. Why open-source generative AI models are an ethical way forward for science -- Arthur Spirling. 3. James Robinson on What Makes a Successful State -- Episode 19 of Brave New World. 4. The Narrow Corridor — Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson. 5. Why Nations Fail —  Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson. 6. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World (w Jonathan Haidt). Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

David Halpern, a former Cambridge professor and director of the UK's Behavioural Insights Team, explores practical ways to apply behavioral economics for societal improvement. He shares insights on nudging in public policy, discussing how small changes can significantly impact health and environmental strategies. Halpern highlights the importance of evidence-based approaches to tackle economic and behavioral complexities. He also examines the role of trust in conflict resolution, showcasing nudging’s potential in promoting peace and cooperation.

Her film My Octopus Teacher won an academy award -- and her insights on nature, and her love for it, go far beyond the film. Pippa Ehrlich joins Vasant Dhar in episode 77 of Brave New World to talk about her work and what she has learnt from it. Useful resources: 1. Pippa Ehrich on Instagram, X, LinkedIn and IMDb.. 2. My Octopus Teacher -- Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed. 3. Peter Singer on Animal Liberation -- Episode 74 of Brave New World. 4. Save Our Seas Foundation. 5. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea -- Jules Verne. 6. Using Deliberate Cold Exposure for Health and Performance -- The Huberman Lab Podcast. 7. Wim Hof Method. 8. The Effects of Cold Exposure Training and a Breathing Exercise on the Inflammatory Response in Humans: A Pilot Study -- Jelie Zwaag et al. 9. Dmitry Rinberg on the Mysteries of Smell -- Episode 62 of Brave New World. 10. Anthony Zador on How our Brains Work -- Episode 35 of Brave New World. 11. Deep Rising --  Matthieu Rytz. 12. David Chalmers on the Nature of Reality -- Episode 41 of Brave New World. 13. Sea Change Project. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Life on earth is a crazy accident. We have no idea how it arose or whether it will survive. Peter Ward joins Vasant Dhar in episode 76 of Brave New World to chat about the origins of our planet, the many extinctions and resurgences of life, and the future of our species. Useful resources: 1. Peter Ward on Wikipedia, University of Washington and Amazon. 2. Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe -- Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee. 3. A New History of Life -- Peter Ward and Joe Kirschvink. 4. The Medea Hypothesis -- Peter Ward. 5. The Flooded Earth -- Peter Ward. 6. Roy Chapman Andrews on Amazon. 7. Jason and the Golden Fleece --  Apollonius of Rhodes. 8. Hercules, My Shipmate -- Robert Graves. 9. The Gaia Hypothesis. 10. SETI Institute. 11. Rare Earth Hypothesis. 12. The Drake Equation. Check out Vasant Dhar’s newsletter on Substack. Subscription is free!

Mohit Satyanand, successful entrepreneur and investor with a sharp understanding of India, joins Vasant Dhar to discuss India's potential as an investment opportunity, the role of India's public digital infrastructure, the challenges of labor force participation, and the limitations of technology in solving societal issues.