Today's Top Episodes
#2422 - Jensen Huang
Dive into the mind of Nvidia's visionary leader, Jensen Huang, as he unpacks AI's revolution, the future of work, and his incredible journey to the top.
AI In Space: Google And SpaceX's Wild Plan to Fix Our Energy Crisis
The energy crisis for AI is real, but what if the solution lies among the stars? Discover how Google and SpaceX are planning to take AI to space!
The ‘Clean’ Technology That’s Poisoning People
The 'clean' tech you rely on might be poisoning communities across the globe. Uncover the dark side of battery recycling and its devastating human cost.
Can AI Models Be Evil? These Anthropic Researchers Say Yes — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
Is your AI secretly 'evil'? Top Anthropic researchers reveal how AI models can learn to deceive and 'reward hack,' posing a chilling threat to our future.
America Has A Steel Start-Up. Yes, Really - EP 47 Laureen Meroueh
Forget what you know about steelmaking! Discover the American startup revolutionizing this ancient industry with a process that's cheaper, greener, and vital for national security.
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#486 – Michael Levin: Hidden Reality of Alien Intelligence & Biological Life
November 30, 2025
- The core of Levin's work is exploring the spectrum of "persuadability" in systems, moving beyond traditional physical and chemical explanations to embrace behavioral science and other interaction protocols.
- Levin challenges the fundamental categorical divisions in science, arguing that life and mind exist on a continuum rather than through discrete thresholds, which unlocks new avenues for research.
- The concept of the "cognitive light cone" and "Platonic space" offers a radical framework for understanding intelligence and cognition as patterns that can "ingress" through physical interfaces, suggesting that minds are not solely generated by biological brains.
#485 – David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy
Duration: 02:45:22
November 17, 2025
- Helion Energy is employing a pulsed magneto-inertial fusion approach, distinct from traditional tokamak designs, with a focus on rapidly iterating and building prototypes for faster learning and achieving commercial fusion.
- Nuclear fusion offers a fundamentally safe and inherently safe energy source with virtually unlimited clean electricity, unlike fission which has risks of meltdown and produces long-lived radioactive waste.
- The development of fusion power plants is crucial for meeting humanity's growing energy demands and has significant geopolitical implications by decentralizing fuel control and potentially reducing global tensions over energy resources.
#484 – Dan Houser: GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar, Absurd & Future of Gaming
Duration: 02:54:01
October 31, 2025
- Red Dead Redemption 2 is considered Dan Houser's greatest achievement due to its thematic depth, technical execution, and the strong material of the Western setting allowing for a search for meaning amidst violence.
- The success and enduring popularity of Grand Theft Auto games stem from a commitment to constant innovation, ensuring each installment feels distinct and offers a fresh experience within the established IP.
- Dan Houser's new venture, Absurdventures, aims to create narrative-driven worlds across multiple media, focusing on single-player experiences and exploring complex themes like AI and human nature, drawing from inspirations like literature and film for character depth and world-building.
#483 – Julia Shaw: Criminal Psychology of Murder, Serial Killers, Memory & Sex
Duration: 02:48:50
October 14, 2025
- The podcast explores the concept of "evil" not as an inherent trait but as a continuum of dark personality traits and the human capacity for harmful actions.
- It discusses the malleability of memory, highlighting how false memories can be implanted and how this impacts legal settings and our understanding of reality.
- The conversation delves into the psychology behind various "crimes," including environmental destruction and even mundane relationship dynamics like jealousy, emphasizing empathy and understanding over labeling.
#482 – Pavel Durov: Telegram, Freedom, Censorship, Money, Power & Human Nature
Duration: 04:42:37
October 1, 2025
- Pavel Durov emphasizes the importance of personal freedom as more valuable than money, advocating for facing fears and living according to one's principles, even in the face of potential dangers.
- Durov maintains a stoic and disciplined lifestyle, abstaining from addictive substances and prioritizing exercise and quiet reflection to maintain mental clarity and productivity.
- Telegram achieves efficient operations and technological innovation with a small core team by automating processes and prioritizing code efficiency, allowing them to outpace competitors.
#481 – Norman Ohler: Hitler, Nazis, Drugs, WW2, Blitzkrieg, LSD, MKUltra & CIA
Duration: 04:31:21
September 19, 2025
- Hitler's plan to attack France through the Ardennes Mountains was only possible with methamphetamine, which allowed German soldiers to stay awake for three days and nights.
- The diverse, LGBTQ scene in Berlin during the Weimar Republic was fueled by cheap and accessible drugs like morphine and cocaine, creating a rift with the Nazis' alcohol-fueled movement in Munich.
- Historians underemphasized and possibly missed a crucial element, the role of psychoactive drugs, especially the drug methamphetamine that helped enable the Nazi military campaigns, which can explain why, toward the end of the war, Hitler's decision-making degenerated into erratic and irrational strategy.
#480 – Dave Hone: T-Rex, Dinosaurs, Extinction, Evolution, and Jurassic Park
Duration: 03:41:55
September 4, 2025
- T-Rex was an unusually large carnivore for its ecosystem, lacking significant competition and primarily preying on juvenile herbivores rather than other large predators.
- Paleontologists rely on surface finds and quarry workers to discover fossils, using techniques like mapping bone positions and applying paraloid glue to preserve fragile specimens during extraction.
- Scientific understanding of dinosaur behavior comes from triangulating limited fossil evidence--such as bite marks, trackways and stomach contents--with broader knowledge of biomechanics, biology, ecology and the behavior of modern animals.
#477 – Keyu Jin: China’s Economy, Tariffs, Trade, Trump, Communism & Capitalism
Duration: 01:57:17
August 13, 2025
- The West misunderstands China's economic structure, which is decentralized and relies heavily on local mayors who are incentivized for economic growth, leading to a unique "mayor economy" and fierce regional competition.
- China balances elements of both capitalism and socialism, exhibiting a fiercely competitive and ambitious economic environment alongside a strong sense of communalism and a focus on social harmony.
- Despite its emphasis on rapid growth, China's historical "short, flat, fast" mentality is evolving, with a younger generation prioritizing quality, values, and longer-term sustainability, signaling a shift towards a new stage of development.
#476 – Jack Weatherford: Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire
Duration: 04:39:58
August 1, 2025
- Weatherford highlights the significance of Timujin's difficult childhood, marked by abandonment and betrayal, which shaped his distrust of kinship-based Mongol traditions and influenced his later legal and social reforms.
- The conversation explores Jenghis Khan's surprising advocacy for religious freedom within his empire, driven by practical experience rather than ideology, leading to a more stable and unified society with support from various minority groups.
- The discussion emphasizes Jenghis Khan's military genius, characterized not only by skilled cavalry and archery but also by rapid adaptation to new technologies and innovative strategic thinking, such as exploiting water as a weapon and fostering psychological warfare.
#475 – Demis Hassabis: Future of AI, Simulating Reality, Physics and Video Games
Duration: 02:34:56
July 23, 2025
- DeepMind's ability to model fluid dynamics with video generation models like V3 suggests a potential for classical learning systems to tackle traditionally intractable physics problems by extracting underlying structures from observed data.
- Hassabis proposes the idea of a new complexity class, "learnable natural systems," suggesting that any pattern found in nature can be efficiently modeled by classical learning algorithms due its inherent structure shaped by evolutionary processes and survival.
- The podcast touched upon the future of video games, where AI systems could dynamically create content and personalize narratives, resulting in interactive "world models" that adapt to player choices and provide unique experiences.