
Thoughts in Between: exploring how technology collides with politics, culture and society
Matt Clifford, cofounder of Entrepreneurs First, interviews the people behind some of the world's most important ideas. We explore in-depth some of the fastest-changing and most impactful areas of life, from technology to geopolitics and scientific progress to entrepreneurship. Guests include founders, investors, academics and journalists working and thinking at the frontier of these topics. Subscribe to the free newsletter at http://tib.matthewclifford.com/
Latest episodes

Apr 19, 2021 • 2h 8min
Alice Bentinck: Talent, innovation and institution building
Alice Bentinck is co-founder of Entrepreneur First (EF), the world's leading talent investor. I've worked with Alice for nearly a decade and she is one of the deepest thinkers about talent and innovation I know. In this conversation, we talk about lessons from building EF through the lens of some of TiB's favorite themes. We discuss how to identify great founders, the consequences of the pandemic for innovation, institution building, and lots more.
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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Apr 5, 2021 • 2h 4min
Samo Burja: Great Founders and where great institutions come from
Samo Burja is founder of Bismarck Analytics and the author of Great Founder Theory, a manuscript that looks at how institutions and civilisations succeed and fail. It’s one of the most interesting things I’ve read this year and in this conversation we dive into its main themes. We discuss where great institutions come from, why there are so few of them, and what we need to do to build more.
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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Mar 22, 2021 • 2h 16min
Steve O'Hear: The future of European tech
Steve O’Hear is a writer at Techcrunch and one of Europe’s leading technology journalists. He’s also, as he likes to put it, a “recovering founder”. In this conversation, we discuss consumer internet innovation in lockdown, the relationship between the media and the technology industry, the prospects for the European startup ecosystem, and how to think about privilege and inclusion in tech.
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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Mar 8, 2021 • 1h 51min
Sarah Drinkwater: How to build a responsible tech industry
Sarah Drinkwater is Director of Beneficial Tech at Omidyar Network, where she works on creating levers for a responsible tech industry. She’s one of the most thoughtful and optimistic people I know on the challenges of making technology a force for good in the world. In this conversation talk we cover a lot of ground: responsible technology, the trade-offs of scale, the role of talent in regulating Big Tech, and much more.
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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Feb 22, 2021 • 2h 11min
Anton Howes: The history of innovation - and how to get more of it
Anton Howes is a historian of innovation. He writes a newsletter on the topic, Age of Invention, and is the author of Arts and Minds (Princeton University Press, 2020), a history of the Royal Society of Arts.
In this conversation we discuss:
Where does innovation come from?The importance of "the improving mindset" in the history of economic growthWhy it feels like progress is slowing down and why that's wrong. And much more.
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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Feb 8, 2021 • 1h 59min
Rowland Manthorpe: Technology and the fight against COVID
Rowland is a technology correspondent at Sky News where he covers the way technology impacts politics and public life, most recently in the fight against Covid-19.
As well as this, we also talk about why it's so hard for governments to deploy capital well, and the relative merits of technocracy and populism.
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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Jan 28, 2021 • 2h 13min
Marc Warner: How do we make AI safe?
Marc Warner is co-founder and CEO of Faculty.AI, a London-based artificial intelligence company that helps leading organisations implement AI in their businesses. In this conversation, we talk about implementing machine learning in the real world and how to make AI safe and effective. We talk about bias and fairness in AI applications and frameworks for ensuring AI is a force for good.
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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Jan 21, 2021 • 2h 13min
Jade Leung: What does history tell us about the future of AI?
Jade was the first Head of Research & Partnerships with the Centre for the Governance of Artificial Intelligence (GovAI), housed at Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute. In this conversation, we discuss her superb doctoral thesis, "Who Will Govern Artificial Intelligence?" and look at what the history of emerging technologies tells us about the future of AI. We cover the role and power of talent; the part that the EU can play; and why AI is a great cause area for effective altruists.
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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Jan 14, 2021 • 2h 1min
Anna Gat: Being an intellectual in the internet age
Anna Gat is co-founder and CEO of Interintellect, a global community of public intellectuals. In this conversation, we discuss how the internet has changed intellectual life, the future of academia, and much more...
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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Jan 11, 2021 • 2h 6min
Ian Hogarth: The geopolitics of AI
Ian Hogarth is an entrepreneur, investor and public intellectual - well known as the author of "AI nationalism" and co-creator of the State of AI report.
In this conversation, we talk about the geopolitics of AI: how does AI change the way that nation states compete and how do we avoid a dangerous race to the bottom dynamic? We also look at the state of the art in machine learning and explore how Ian thinks about AI as an investment thesis.
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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com