The Escaped Sapiens Podcast

Economist Steve Keen challenges modern economic theory, criticizes neoclassical economics, explores China's economic transformation, discusses building a sustainable economy on Mars, contrasts subjective and objective value in economic theory, critiques economists for missing the 2007 crisis, examines the interplay of energy, value, and sustainability, and advocates for Universal Basic Income and valuing human life.

On this episode of the Podcast I speak with economist and public policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs. Jeffrey is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He served as Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General for almost two decades, and is co-founder and chief strategist of the Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty and hunger. In this conversation we cover the question: "Is Capitalism Responsible For the Environmental Destruction We are Seeing Today?" These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests. ►Watch on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/kNv94Ggf9YI   ►Find out more about Jeffery's work:  https://www.jeffsachs.org/ https://sdgs.un.org/panelists/mr-jeffrey-d-sachs-29781 https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/communities-connections/faculty/jeffrey-sachs https://csd.columbia.edu/sachs   ►Watch more of Jeffery on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@JeffreySachsOfficial2023    

In this episode of the podcast I speak with David Shapiro about some of the threats associated with AI development. We discuss the impact that generative AI will have on truth, trust in evidence, and divisive narratives. Who will pay for AI, and how will that determine the path of its development? Will artificial relationships and generated adult content lead to new forms of sexual addiction and social isolation? What impact will AI have on cyber security, and what will weaponized AI look like? How will AI eventually escape our control?  We close with a brief discussion of UBI, and why humans matter. ►Watch on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/pCtbdYQm16s ►Visit David's Youtube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@DavidShapiroAutomator ►Join David's Discord:  https://discord.com/invite/32kNMc2Pqt ►Support David's work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/daveshap  These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests.  

What is narcissism, and why do so many successful people seem to be narcissists? In this conversation I speak with Professor Mitja Back from the university of Muenster, who is one of the worlds leading experts on the topic of Narcissism. We discuss narcissism as a personality trait, how narcissistic traits develop (nature vs nurture), relationship breakdown, narcissism on social media, and the link between narcissism and success. ►Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/JXDs3TbIiEk   ►For more information about Mitja's work see: https://www.uni-muenster.de/PsyIFP/AEBack/members/mitja-back.html https://www.mitjaback.de/buecher/ https://www.instagram.com/dr.mitjaback/ https://www.youtube.com/@MitjaBack   These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun Foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The views expressed in these episodes are my own and/or those of my guests. 

In this conversation I speak with Professor Kerstin Göpfrich, who works at Heidelberg University at the Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), and who is also leading the Max Planck Research Group for the Biophysical Engineering of Life. Kerstin is attempting to construct living cells from scratch, piece by piece from non-living materials. So far she has created cell membranes, cytoskeletons, linkers for connecting cytoskeletons to the cell membrane, a mechanism for cell division, microscopic channels for ion transport in and out of cell membranes, an artificial 'mitochondria' analog, and more. The goal is eventually to put together all of these elements into a self replicating, and autonomous model 'cell'. We discuss her progress, and what it teaches us about the origins of life on earth. We also touch on the ethics of bringing an entirely new branch of life into existence.   ►Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JBnlKY-9f5c   ►For more information about Kerstin's work see: https://goepfrichgroup.de/kerstin-gopfrich/ https://www.mr.mpg.de/person/53539/14181493   These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun Foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests.    

Evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson discusses the history of life on Earth, exploring the transformation of life forms over time and the 5 energy epochs. Topics include the influence of organisms on Earth, the formation of eukaryotes, the origins of predation and multicellularity, and the benefits and consequences of sexual reproduction. The speakers also touch on DNA structure and evolution, debunk the oxygen holocaust theory, consider the possibility of life on Mars and the Moon, and discuss the Fermi Paradox and the search for intelligent life.

NOTE: From 0:01:07-0:02:36 the sound quality is lower than the rest of the episode as you are hearing the backup recording.    This conversation is about democracy and scientific literacy. In 2023 Germany shut down the last of its nuclear plants, and is now bringing back several mothballed coal plants to keep the lights on over winter. Was this a smart decision given the scientific consensus that we need to cut carbon emissions? Similar questions can be asked about the banning of GMO crops, or government handling of Covid. More and more, the decisions being made in western democracies have a scientific basis. Can our democracies thrive (or even survive) without a well informed, engaged, and scientifically literate population? In this conversation I speak with Johannes Vogel, who is the Director General of the Natural Science Museum in Berlin, and a Professor of Biodiversity and Public Science at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. We discuss the role of museums in society, the unglamorous side of science, open and citizen science, scientific spending, ownership of museum items, the war in Ukraine, preserving museum specimens, the effectiveness of political protest and marches, scientists as politicians, AI and misinformation, and much more. ►Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KT_p26a_d_M ►For more information about Johannes work: https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/about/team/johannes.vogel   These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun Foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests. This episode focuses on the sustainability of western democracies in the face of anti-scientific sentiment.

In this conversation I speak with Dr. Gary Linkov about the ethics and practice of plastic surgery. Gary is a double board certified facial plastic surgeon who specializes in lip lift surgeries and hair restoration. He is also renowned for carrying out complex nasal surgery for US war veterans in need, and for teaching rhinoplasty procedures to the NYU head and neck surgery residents.   Plastic surgery is controversial. On the one hand critics claim that it leads to unhealthy beauty standards, and that aggressive marketing preys upon people who are already under enormous pressure the alter who they are to conform with societies view of beauty. On the other hand our society values personal agency and individual choice, and plastic surgery can help improve self image and quality of life. This is particularly apparent in cases where patients have suffered from physical trauma, or cancer, or who were born with congenital defects. We discuss some of the ethics behind plastic surgery, including who might be an appropriate candidate. We also touch on the technical aspects of the job, including how certain procedures are done.   ►Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8iOLX1_LbRU ►For more information about Gary's research and work: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_O-qmfUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao https://cityfacialplastics.com/dr-gary-linkov/ ►Follow Gary on YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@drgarylinkov These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun Foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests.

In this conversation I discuss distributed and decentralized organizations with Jean-Philippe Vergne, who is an associate professor of strategy at University College London. We focus on the development of blockchain technology, which at least in theory should allow for new forms of organization that don't rely on centralized authorities to function. The initial dream was that blockchain technology would drive innovation, provide transparency, limit abuses of power, and provide access to financing for people living in dysfunctional states. Crypto currencies based on the technology might also act as a counterweight to the sovereign monopoly that nation states have on currency creation. As we discuss, however, blockchain networks and applications often maintain elements of centralization and it is often difficult in practice to use the technology to construct organizations that are more distributed than traditional hierarchical organizations. ►Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qxe5Oiwvk7c ►For more information about JP's research: https://www.mgmt.ucl.ac.uk/people/jeanphilippevergne https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2631787720977052 ►Follow JP on twitter and LinkedIn: https://twitter.com/PirateOrg https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpver/ These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests. This episode focuses on new forms of organization and the evolution of societies. 

What is the future of our oceans? On this episode of the Podcast I speak with Dr. Shawn Robinson about marine ecology, aquaculture, and the politics and economics of what ends up on your plate. Shawn is a marine ecologist who did his graduate work at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia on the giant Pacific octopus (MSc) and at the University of British Columbia on biological oceanography off Vancouver Island (PhD). He began his career as a research scientist in 1988 with the Dept. Fisheries and Oceans at the Biological Station in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, one of Canada’s oldest marine research stations. Over the last 35 years, he has been actively engaged in applied ecological research on a wide range of marine invertebrate species such as blue mussels, sea scallops, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, soft-shell clams, lobsters, marine worms, sea lice and marine bacteria. His research team specifically studied the natural ecological processes by which these animals interact with and utilise their environment so that better and more sustainable culture techniques could be developed for the evolution of food production in today’s society (such as the concept of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture or IMTA). Most recently, he and other colleagues have been studying sea lice ecology in relation to salmon farming, biodiversity in marine bacteria through eDNA genomic approaches in response to organic impacts, and wild-farmed interactions between natural ecosystems and salmon aquaculture farms. He currently lives in St. Andrews enjoying the retirement pleasures that a coastal town in the Canadian Maritimes provides. These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests. This episode looks at the sustainable use of our oceans. ►Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/N805eseQtWA ►Subscribe And Turn On All Notifications To See More: https://www.youtube.com/c/EscapedSapiens?sub_confirmation=1