In a world dominated by big companies with billions of dollars in investible capital, why should tiny startups be successful with anything? After all, startups are less capitalized, have a non-existent brand, and often the products they release are basic. Our today’s guest, Jerry Neumann, spends his time thinking about why startups are able to grow despite being surrounded by big companies. Without giving out too much, his ideas revolve around the concept of “uncertainty” and how, counterintuitively, it is the key to a startup's success. He’s a venture capitalist with investments in popular ..read more

What can we learn about the brain if we map it at a nanometer resolution? This is what I discuss with Jeff Lichtman, who is a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. The holy grail of brain science is to understand the human brain and towards that Jeff Litchman and his collaborators recently finished a project where they mapped 1 mm cubed of human brain tissue using an electron microscope at a nanometer resolution. The project revealed a goldmine of 1.6 petabytes worth of data, which is sufficient to fill more than 3000 laptop hard drives. And, mind you, it’s just ..read more

Does our subconscious exist? Today, I’m with Nick Chater, who is the author of the popular book “The Mind is Flat. In the book, he talks about how our mind is an imaginative storyteller making up things as it goes along in life. What we perceive as deep thoughts or emotions are not views into our deep self but rather a shallow, surface-level interpretation of whatever situation we find ourselves in. Nick is a Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School and works on rationality and language using a range of theoretical and experimental approaches. He has over 200 publications ..read more

Is there a limit to how much we can know? I talk to Dr. Chris Fields who is an information scientist interested in physics, developmental biology and cognitive neuroscience. He is a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Colorado. Currently, he’s an independent scientist. His recent publications include work in the foundations of quantum theory, morphology, and information systems. His research spans fields that aren’t traditionally overlapping which allows him to come up with unique and bold insights. Earlier in the podcast, I interviewed Dr Michael Levin and Dr Donald Hoffman and Chris h ..read more

Over the course of history, we've expanded our moral circle to arrive at equal rights for all humans in most countries in the world. Can we go beyond it and expand to include animals and other sentient beings? == What we talk about == 0:00 - Introduction 1:38 - How did you get interested in effective altruism (EA) and what made you focus on animal advocacy? 10:27 - The concept of replaceability, its connection with the EA community, and importance of scale of impact 20:08 - Why do you prioritize animal advocacy against helping the suffering humans? 31:05 - Do you see the number of users of a ..read more

Winning feels great. But kindness feels even better. Visakan Veerasamy is the Internet's child. I call him that because he jokes that The Internet is his mum. In 2018, he quit his job in software marketing to write full-time. Today, he writes and tweets extensively on a variety of topics, which all converge on recurring themes around friendships, life, love, ambition, and nerdiness. Having interacted with Visakan before on Twitter, I reached out to him for a conversation after someone responded to my tweet where I asked which two people will enjoy being friends. That person said Visa and I w ..read more

DeFi is all rage these days, but have you heard of DeBi? DeBi stands for decentralized bio. In this podcast, I talk to Ethan Perlstein who is the founder and CEO of Perlara, a biotech startup that runs in a completely decentralized fashion. == What we talk about == 0:04 - Introduction 1:27 - Who is an indie-scientist? 2:59 - How did you go from being in academia to being an indie-scientist? 7:03 - While moving away from academia, what concerns did you have? 8:30 - As an indie-scientist, did you miss the academia’s collaborative science and affordable resources like labs? 11:39 - What is dece ..read more

Why do dreams feel so real? It's because the same mechanisms that generate are waking reality also generate our dreams. However, unlike the awake state, during dreams, we're disconnected from sensory input and locomotor actions. This isolation from the real world makes dreams a perfect model system for investigating the nature of consciousness. I talk to Antti Revonsuo who is a philosopher and a scientist investigating dreams and their relationship with consciousness. == What we talk about == 0:04 - Introduction 1:54 - Why are you interested in consciousness? What aspect of it intrigued you ..read more

What if everything continuously gets cheaper? Common sense suggests that is what paradise looks like. It's a world where everyone is able to afford more and more using less and less money. But why isn't our world like that? I talk to Jeff Booth, author of the popular book "The Price of Tomorrow", how to create a deflationary world. == What we talk about == 0:04 - Introduction 1:21 - As a tech entrepreneur, how did you get interested in economics? 4:33 - The game of inflation and deflation 14:47 - Why inflation is a theft 20:21 - If we can reset the debt to zero, will it be easier for governm ..read more

Can there be a single solution to all of the following problems: malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and animal suffering? Varun Deshpande thinks so. In this podcast, he makes a compelling case that alternative proteins (such as those derived from plants, fungi, or those that are cultivated in labs) can fix all these problems in one go. == What we talk about == 0:04 - Introduction 1:29 - Journey of starting Good Food Institute (GFI) India 6:01 - Decision of making a leveraged impact by starting GFI India 11:00 - What are alternative proteins? 16:55 - If we keep eating meat, can ..read more