The Armen Show

Professor Elizabeth S. Anderson joins us on episode 299 of the show, as we make our way to the 300s. She is an American philosopher, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan and specializes in topics including political philosophy and ethics. Anderson received a B.A. with high honors in philosophy with a minor in economics from Swarthmore College in 1981. In 1987 Anderson completed a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Harvard University. She was a visiting instructor of philosophy at Swarthmore College 1985–86 and took up a position at the University of Michigan in 1987. She was Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies 1993–1999 and was promoted to professor in 1999. In 1994, she was named Arthur F. Thurnau Professor to recognize her dedication to undergraduate education with a demonstrable impact on the intellectual development and lives of her students. In 2005 she was named John Rawls Collegiate Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies, and in 2013 the John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies. We discussed philosophical points, some topics from her book Private Government, and some from her upcoming book as well. You can check out her material on Wikipedia, her faculty page, or look at Private Government on Amazon.

We have guest Carl Zimmer returning to the show, with his new book Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive. He first joined on episode 207 of the show to discuss his previous book She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, and has written numerous books in the science category. Carl is “a popular science writer, blogger, columnist, and journalist who specializes in the topics of evolution, parasites, and heredity. The author of many books, he contributes science essays to publications such as The New York Times, Discover, and National Geographic. He is a fellow at Yale University’s Morse College and adjunct professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University. Zimmer also gives frequent lectures and has appeared on many radio shows, including National Public Radio’s Radiolab, Fresh Air, and This American Life.” You can check him out on Twitter, check out Life’s Edge on Amazon, or check out his New York Times articles.

What kind of power does ethics hold, and does the law lag behind where ethics can be in the current moment? What kind of ethical questions should we ask ourselves before making important decisions? Dr. Susan Liautaud covers these topics in her latest book The Power of Ethics: How to Make Good Choices in a Complicated World. Dr. Susan Liautaud teaches cutting-edge ethics courses at Stanford University, serves as Chair of Council of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is the founder of the nonprofit platform The Ethics Incubator. She is also the founder and managing director of Susan Liautaud & Associates Limited, which advises clients from global corporations to NGOs on complex ethics matters. She holds a PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science; a JD from Columbia University Law School; a M.A. in Chinese Studies from University of London School of Oriental and African Studies; and a M.A. and two B.A.s from Stanford University. Susan also serves on the advisory board of the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford. You can check out The Power of Ethics on Amazon, look at Dr. Liautaud’s Stanford page, check out her website founder page, or follow her on Twitter @SusanLiautaud.

Can we as people come together to think beyond the short term? Do we have the capacity to make a decade or two from now as important as next week? It is up to us to go “Beyond a Near-term Orientation”, and that is what Bentoism is about. It was created by Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter, and author of This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World. “Yancey is a Distinguished Fellow at the Drucker Institute and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. He cofounded the artist resource The Creative Independent, the record label eMusic Selects, and is an angel investor in startups including Hopin, Mati, Realtime, System, and Wren. Yancey began his career as a music critic in New York City writing for Pitchfork, Spin, and The Village Voice, and grew up on a farm in Clover Hollow, Virginia. He lives with his family in Vancouver, British Columbia.” You can check out This Could Be Our Future on Amazon, The Bento Society homepage, or follow Yancey on Twitter (@ystrickler). You can also check out The Ideaspace substack, as well as the podcast.

Welcome to episode 295 of the show, the first of 2021, with Professor Mauro F. Guillén. As a future-oriented person, discussing the upcoming trends leading us toward 10 years from now is something I am interested in. These trends are covered in 2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything. Professor Guillen is “a Spanish/American sociologist, political economist, management educator, Zandman Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Director of the Penn Lauder Center for International Business Education and Research.” As well, “An expert on global market trends, he is a sought-after speaker and consultant. He combines his training as a sociologist at Yale and as a business economist in his native Spain to methodically identify and quantify the most promising opportunities at the intersection of demographic, economic, and technological developments. His online classes on Coursera and edX have attracted over 100,000 participants from around the world.” You can check out 2030 on Amazon.

We start from one place and end up at another. In this episode, we close out 2020 with a last episode of the year, bringing us to 52 episodes for the 52-week year~. Here, I discuss the guests we’ve had on in 2020, concepts they brought up, and some takeaways for all of you.

Welcome to episode 293 of the show, with Professor Richard Coss of the University of California, Davis. From his educational transitions to life transitions, he has covered a variety of disciplines, and looks at key elements of animal behavior and predator activity. Of his biography, “Dr. Coss is an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and a faculty member of UC Davis’ Graduate Group in Animal Behavior and Graduate Group in Ecology. Dr. Coss serves as a member of a number of professional organizations, including the Animal Behavior Society, the International Society for Ecological Psychology, and the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology. Dr. Coss also served on the Editorial Advisory Board for Behavioral and Neural Biology.” From his description, “Dr. Coss has two primary research interests, both of which emphasize evolutionary constraints on perceptual and cognitive processes in humans and other species. The first research area examines issues in the behavioral ecology of small mammals. His research typically examines population differences, predator-prey relations, habitat perception, and social communication. Behavioral development in field and laboratory conditions is a consistent theme throughout his experimental studies; Pthis developmental theme is sometimes complemented with neuro-biological measures. The second program of study concentrates on the development of aesthetic preferences and how these preferences are constrained by human evolutionary history. Research on this topic emphasizes visual perception and creativity and often includes cross-cultural comparisons.” You can check out Professor Coss’ material on his faculty page.

Hello to all of you, and welcome to episode 292 of the show, with Professor John Harte of The Harte Lab at UC Berkeley. Focusing on biodiversity, climate change, complex systems, ecology, and policy analysis, Professor Harte and his lab members tackle a range of issues. Professor Harte is an ecologist and Professor of the Graduate School in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California at Berkeley. “Harte received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1961 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin in 1965. He was an Assistant Professor of Physics at Yale University from 1968-1973. During his time at Yale, he transitioned into the study of theoretical ecology, and joined the UC Berkeley faculty as an ecologist in the Energy and Resources Group in 1973.” “His work spans a range of scales, from plot to landscape to global, and utilizes field manipulation experiments, the study of patterns in nature, and mathematical modeling. Two specific goals are to understand the nature and causes of patterns in the distribution and abundance of species and to understand the extent to which ecosystem responses to climate change may result in feedbacks to climate that can either ameliorate or exacerbate global warming. An overarching goal of his research is to understand the interdependence of human well-being and the health of ecosystems.” You can check out Professor Harte’s faculty page, as well as The Harte Lab website.

Where will virtual therapeutics take healthcare in upcoming years? Dr. Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, gastroenterologist at Cedars-Sinai, writes about this in his book VRx: How Virtual Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine. Directing the Center for Outcomes Research and Education at Cedars, he guides investigation of the application of digital health technologies, which include wearable biosensors, smartphone applications, virtual reality and social media. Dr. Spiegel is editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Gastroenterology, the leading clinical gastroenterology journal in North America. He has also published “numerous best-selling medical textbooks, editorials and more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is listed in the Onalytica ‘Top 100 Influencer’ lists for digital health (No. 13) and virtual reality (No. 14). His digital health research has been featured by major media outlets, including NBC News, PBS, Forbes, Bloomberg, NPR and Reuters.”

Welcome to episode 290 of The Armen Show Podcast. This one is about the value of branching out in daily times, and different ways you can branch out in your own life. Adding a little variation to your day can be all you need to keep it interesting. This can be in the form of music, colors used in note-taking, paths taken to travel, locations visited, foods tried, people reached out to, and more.