Last week, World Labs announced its acquisition of SceniX, bringing together two teams working on one of AI's biggest unsolved problems: how to give machines a true understanding of the physical world.
Martin Casado sits down with Fei-Fei Li, co-founder and CEO of World Labs, creator of ImageNet, and pioneer of spatial intelligence, alongside Yunzhu Li, co-founder of SceniX and assistant professor at Columbia University. They discuss why World Labs acquired SceniX, how simulation can unlock the next generation of robotics, and why training robots may require a fundamentally different approach than training language models.
The conversation explores real-to-sim-to-real pipelines, world models, robotics foundation models, evaluation, synthetic data, and why the future of AI depends not just on understanding language—but on understanding and interacting with the physical world.
Resources:
Follow Fei-Fei Li on X: https://x.com/drfeifei
Follow Yunzhu Li on X: https://x.com/YunzhuLiYZ
Follow Martin Casado on X: https://x.com/martin_casado
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Ryan welcomes Bjarne Stroustrup, designer of C++ and professor at Columbia, to the show to dive into all things C++, from its history to where it's going today. They discuss its first emergence as a way to bridge high-level abstractions with low-level systems control, the criticisms some have around memory safety and null pointers (and how to solve these problems in your code), and why “move to Rust” thinking is too simplistic for modern codebases.
Episode notes:
Keep up with everything happening with C++ at the Standard C++ Foundation’s website.
Connect with Bjarne on LinkedIn and explore more of his work at his website.
Congrats to Populist badge winner Michael Sorens for winning the badge for their answer to PowerShell equivalent for "head -n-3"?.
TRANSCRIPT
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Vishal Misra returns to explain his latest research on how LLMs actually work under the hood. He walks through experiments showing that transformers update their predictions in a precise, mathematically predictable way as they process new information, explains why this still doesn't mean they're conscious, and describes what's actually required for AGI: the ability to keep learning after training and the move from pattern matching to understanding cause and effect.
Resources:
Follow Vishal Misra on X: https://x.com/vishalmisra
Follow Martin Casado on X: https://x.com/martin_casado
Stay Updated:
Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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DATs may be collapsing, AI agents may be overhyped, but Omid Malekan thinks the strongest case for crypto has nothing to do with either.
Thank you to our sponsors:
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Bitcoin is below $63,000, digital asset treasuries are under pressure, and the debate over whether crypto markets are bottoming or breaking down is splitting the hosts.
Ram is skeptical of institutional demand when he looks at the 13F data from institutions filing SEC reports. Chris is on the phone with institutions all day and is bullish.
Omid Malekan, adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, comes in with a longer lens: he admits he contributed to the DAT hype cycle, has doubts about agentic commerce that remind him of the metaverse in 2021, and thinks the strongest argument for crypto is not a product or a token but a fact about how nation-states treat their own citizens.
The conversation also covers tokenized bank deposits, the SEC's updated broker-dealer guidance on stablecoins, and what it means that the Supreme Court just struck down Trump's tariffs.
Hosts:
Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida
Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting
Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund
Guest:
Omid Malekan, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School
Links:
Unchained:
Bitcoin Slips Below $63,000 as Fear Deepens
Bitcoin Dips Below $65,000 as Tariff Uncertainty Weighs on Risk
White House Talks Make Progress on Stablecoin Yields but No Deal Yet
SEC Quietly Eases Capital Rules for Stablecoins
SCOTUS: Supreme Court strikes down tariffs
Citrini: THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS
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From GPT-1 to GPT-5, LLMs have made tremendous progress in modeling human language. But can they go beyond that to make new discoveries and move the needle on scientific progress?
We sat down with distinguished Columbia CS professor Vishal Misra to discuss this, plus why chain-of-thought reasoning works so well, what real AGI would look like, and what actually causes hallucinations.
Resources:
Follow Dr. Misra on X: https://x.com/vishalmisra
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Stay Updated:
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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What happens when stablecoins break apart the traditional business model of banks?
Economist Charles Calomiris explains how the “unbundling” of payments and lending reshapes finance, why politics matter more than technology, and what this revolution could mean for the dollar’s future.
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------
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 What Are Banks?
7:56 Chartered Banking
30:44 The Unbundling
51:48 Stablecoin Yield Concerns
1:01:42 Death of The Dollar?
1:15:45 Stablecoins Abroad
1:20:52 Future of The Dollar
1:24:38 Dollar as a SoV
1:32:10 Are Stablecoins Winning?
1:36:30 Closing & Disclaimers
------
RESOURCES
Charles Calomiris
https://x.com/cwcalomiris
Fragile by Design (Charles' Book)
https://www.amazon.com/Fragile-Design-Political-Princeton-Economic/dp/0691155240/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=8-1
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Austin Campbell (NYU) and Omid Malekan (Columbia) debate a simple question: is Ethereum ready to host real-world assets?
They walk through stress tests—what if an exchange is hacked, a stablecoin breaks, or a court order targets the chain—and whether the network should ever step in.
You’ll hear where they agree and disagree, what protections are realistic today, and what still needs to be built before RWAs can scale.
------
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------
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
6:13 Twitter Debate Genesis
8:58 Bybit Hack
17:56 Crypto vs RWA Immutability
29:29 Ethereum Validator Intervention
33:11 Dealing with Multiple Jurisdictions
52:23 Credible Neutrality for a Multipolar World
1:00:32 Blockchain Use Cases
1:13:40 Consortium Chains
1:24:57 Closing Arguments
------
RESOURCES
Omid Malekan
https://x.com/malekanoms
https://www.omidmalekan.com/
Austin Campbell
https://x.com/campbelljaustin
https://zero-in.beehiiv.com/
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Can a country wage war without ever firing a bullet? In this episode of Bankless, we uncover the surprising truth: America’s most powerful weapon isn’t its military - it’s the dollar.
Joining us is Edward Fishman, a former State Department official and the author of Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare. He explains how U.S. sanctions work, why they’re so effective, and what happens when countries try to escape them. From Iran and Russia to the rise of stablecoins and China’s digital yuan, we dive deep into the geopolitical power of financial infrastructure and crypto’s growing role in rewriting the rules.
If you want to understand the silent machinery behind global power, and why crypto might be the next battleground - don’t miss this one.
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---
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
5:51 Sanctions 101
8:32 The History of Economic Warfare
17:03 When Sanctions Precede War
22:27 Life After Dollar Disconnection
31:28 Sanctioning Russia: Methods & Lessons
43:49 Measuring Sanctions’ Effectiveness
49:20 The Strategic Tradeoffs of Sanctions
57:28 The Rise of Dollar Dominance
1:04:05 Unseen Costs of Sanction Power
1:08:15 Shifting Global Economic Power
1:15:47 Risks to U.S. Economic Leadership
1:20:43 Stablecoins as U.S. Leverage
1:28:13 Crypto’s Role in Sanction Evasion
------
RESOURCES
Edward Fishman
https://x.com/edwardfishman
Edward Fishman’s “Chokepoints”
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726149/chokepoints-by-edward-fishman/
---
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Prof. Kevin Ellis and Dr. Zenna Tavares talk about making AI smarter, like humans. They want AI to learn from just a little bit of information by actively trying things out, not just by looking at tons of data.
They discuss two main ways AI can "think": one way is like following specific rules or steps (like a computer program), and the other is more intuitive, like guessing based on patterns (like modern AI often does). They found combining both methods works well for solving complex puzzles like ARC.
A key idea is "compositionality" - building big ideas from small ones, like LEGOs. This is powerful but can also be overwhelming. Another important idea is "abstraction" - understanding things simply, without getting lost in details, and knowing there are different levels of understanding.
Ultimately, they believe the best AI will need to explore, experiment, and build models of the world, much like humans do when learning something new.
SPONSOR MESSAGES:
***
Tufa AI Labs is a brand new research lab in Zurich started by Benjamin Crouzier focussed on o-series style reasoning and AGI. They are hiring a Chief Engineer and ML engineers. Events in Zurich.
Goto https://tufalabs.ai/
***
TRANSCRIPT:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3ngggvhb3tnemw879er5y/BASIS.pdf?rlkey=lr2zbj3317mex1q5l0c2rsk0h&dl=0
Zenna Tavares:
http://www.zenna.org/
Kevin Ellis:
https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~ellisk/
TOC:
1. Compositionality and Learning Foundations
[00:00:00] 1.1 Compositional Search and Learning Challenges
[00:03:55] 1.2 Bayesian Learning and World Models
[00:12:05] 1.3 Programming Languages and Compositionality Trade-offs
[00:15:35] 1.4 Inductive vs Transductive Approaches in AI Systems
2. Neural-Symbolic Program Synthesis
[00:27:20] 2.1 Integration of LLMs with Traditional Programming and Meta-Programming
[00:30:43] 2.2 Wake-Sleep Learning and DreamCoder Architecture
[00:38:26] 2.3 Program Synthesis from Interactions and Hidden State Inference
[00:41:36] 2.4 Abstraction Mechanisms and Resource Rationality
[00:48:38] 2.5 Inductive Biases and Causal Abstraction in AI Systems
3. Abstract Reasoning Systems
[00:52:10] 3.1 Abstract Concepts and Grid-Based Transformations in ARC
[00:56:08] 3.2 Induction vs Transduction Approaches in Abstract Reasoning
[00:59:12] 3.3 ARC Limitations and Interactive Learning Extensions
[01:06:30] 3.4 Wake-Sleep Program Learning and Hybrid Approaches
[01:11:37] 3.5 Project MARA and Future Research Directions
REFS:
[00:00:25] DreamCoder, Kevin Ellis et al.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.08381
[00:01:10] Mind Your Step, Ryan Liu et al.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.21333
[00:06:05] Bayesian inference, Griffiths, T. L., Kemp, C., & Tenenbaum, J. B.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-06911-003
[00:13:00] Induction and Transduction, Wen-Ding Li, Zenna Tavares, Yewen Pu, Kevin Ellis
https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.02272
[00:23:15] Neurosymbolic AI, Garcez, Artur d'Avila et al.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.05876
[00:33:50] Induction and Transduction (II), Wen-Ding Li, Kevin Ellis et al.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.02272
[00:38:35] ARC, François Chollet
https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.01547
[00:39:20] Causal Reactive Programs, Ria Das, Joshua B. Tenenbaum, Armando Solar-Lezama, Zenna Tavares
http://www.zenna.org/publications/autumn2022.pdf
[00:42:50] MuZero, Julian Schrittwieser et al.
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1911.08265
[00:43:20] VisualPredicator, Yichao Liang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.23156
[00:48:55] Bayesian models of cognition, Joshua B. Tenenbaum
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049412/bayesian-models-of-cognition/
[00:49:30] The Bitter Lesson, Rich Sutton
http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html
[01:06:35] Program induction, Kevin Ellis, Wen-Ding Li
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.02272
[01:06:50] DreamCoder (II), Kevin Ellis et al.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.08381
[01:11:55] Project MARA, Zenna Tavares, Kevin Ellis
https://www.basis.ai/blog/mara/
Omid Malekan, an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and author of multiple books on crypto joins us. Omid shares his insights on the evolution of blockchain, the concept of digital scarcity, and the future of decentralized finance. Drawing from his experiences in both traditional finance, his teachings, and the crypto industry. Omid also discusses how blockchain offers a fundamentally new way to build trust and redefine property rights in the digital world and his best arguments for why ETH is better than SOL.
------ 🎬 DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-omid-malekan
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------ ✨ Mint the episode on Zora ✨ https://zora.co/collect/zora:0x0c294913a7596b427add7dcbd6d7bbfc7338d53f/81?referrer=0x077Fe9e96Aa9b20Bd36F1C6290f54F8717C5674E
------ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro 5:52 Omid Malekan’s Crypto Background 9:31 Transitioning from TradFi to Crypto 14:51 Explaining Blockchain to Crypto Newcomers 21:10 The Fear in Crypto Transactions 24:53 Blockchain as a New Financial Architecture 28:07 What New Crypto Users Get Wrong 32:06 Not All Blockchains Are Equal 39:25 Qualitative & Quantitative Block Space 41:49 Lessons from Traditional Finance 46:36 Modular Design in Blockchain Systems 1:01:30 Envisioning Crypto's Endgame 1:09:25 Ether's Value Proposition and Role 1:20:28 Opportunities for High-Quality Liquid Assets 1:23:38 Ether as the Money of the Internet 1:36:55 Settlement Assurances and the Future of Ether 1:44:07 Crypto Cycles and Future Gains 1:45:29 Own Podcast? 1:46:22 Closing & Disclaimers
------ RESOURCES
Omid Malekan https://x.com/malekanoms
Omid's Books https://www.amazon.com/Re-Architecting-Trust-History-Markets-Platforms/dp/1732027331 https://www.amazon.com/Story-Blockchain-Beginners-Technology-Understands/dp/1732027307
------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
(0:00) Announcement from Friedberg!
(0:21) Sacks intros John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs
(1:32) What is the Deep State Party, and what are their goals?
(13:56) Should America leverage its power against dictators?
(22:07) The China threat: avoiding the escalatory path to nuclear war
(36:08) India's growing role; are China's wounds self-inflicted?
(47:07) Conflict in the Middle East and the path to peace
Follow the besties:
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https://x.com/friedberg
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Intro Music Credit:
https://rb.gy/tppkzl
https://x.com/yung_spielburg
Intro Video Credit:
https://x.com/TheZachEffect
One of the big buzzwords over the last year or so has been "overcapacity." There's a constant line of argument that China is unfairly flooding the world with unprofitable goods and creating huge, unsustainable imbalances. Western countries, particularly the US (but also Europe), have responded by raising tariffs and engaging in domestic industrial policy in order to compete. But is the strategy sound? Are the basic premises of the problem correct? On this episode of the podcast, we speak with Columbia Professor Adam Tooze, the author of several books, as well as the popular Chartbook newsletter. He argues that the overcapacity framing is misguided, and that the US may be making a mistake putting its chips down on an industrial revival. He talks us through some of the actual weaknesses of the Chinese model, as well as its global political reverberations.
Read more:
Two Veteran Chip Builders Have a Plan to Take On Nvidia
The US and China Are in an All Out Race for AI Domination
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize-winning economist known for his groundbreaking work on information gaps and risk-taking in markets. But he's recently turned his attention to supply chains and how to make them more resilient in the face of shocks like the 2020 pandemic. In this episode, we discuss why companies often hesitate to maintain extra inventories — and why this tends to be the case even during stable economic periods. We talk about possible solutions to incentivize firms to invest in larger capacity buffers and promote better long-term economic practices. The conversation also touches on industrial policy, the role of international institutions in the global economy, and strategies to ensure that economic growth benefits everyone more fairly.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Statistics history, interdisciplinarity, and data and society. Chris Wiggins talks with Jon Krohn about the power dynamics of data, the transformation of the field of biology through data-driven approaches to genetic sequencing, and the New York Times’ data science team’s cutting-edge approach to accommodating its tech stack.
This episode is brought to you by the AWS Insiders Podcast and by Modelbit, for deploying models in seconds. Interested in sponsoring a SuperDataScience Podcast episode? Visit JonKrohn.com/podcast for sponsorship information.
In this episode you will learn:
• The importance of the humanities in data science [09:18]
• How data science “rearranges” power [17:19]
• An overview of How Data Happened [20:36]
• The controversial nature of Bayes theorem [29:16]
• Why we need to consider data ethics [34:00]
• How biology came to adopt data science into its field [45:44]
• The data science tech stack at the New York Times [49:18]
Additional materials: www.superdatascience.com/703
Jeffrey Sachs, a world-renowned economics professor at Columbia University, joins Scott to discuss the state of the nation’s debt ceiling – specifically as it relates to military spending. We also hear Professor Sachs’ take on the broader geopolitical landscape, as well as the war in Ukraine.
Scott opens by discussing Meta’s privacy violation fine from the GDPR as well as the firm’s potential to build a Twitter competitor.
Algebra of Happiness: switching mediums.
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Dr. Raphaël Millière is the 2020 Robert A. Burt Presidential Scholar in Society and Neuroscience in the Center for Science and Society, and a Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Columbia University. His research draws from his expertise in philosophy and cognitive science to explore the implications of recent progress in deep learning for models of human cognition, as well as various issues in ethics and aesthetics. He is also investigating what underlies the capacity to represent oneself as oneself at a fundamental level, in humans and non-human animals; as well as the role that self-representation plays in perception, action, and memory. In a world where technology is rapidly advancing, Dr. Millière is striving to gain a better understanding of how artificial neural networks work, and to establish fair and meaningful comparisons between humans and machines in various domains in order to shed light on the implications of artificial intelligence for our lives.
https://www.raphaelmilliere.com/
https://twitter.com/raphaelmilliere
Here is a version with hesitation sounds like "um" removed if you prefer (I didn't notice them personally): https://share.descript.com/view/aGelyTl2xpN
YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhn6ZtD6XeE
TOC:
Intro to Raphael [00:00:00]
Intro: Moving Beyond Mimicry in Artificial Intelligence (Raphael Millière) [00:01:18]
Show Kick off [00:07:10]
LLMs [00:08:37]
Semantic Competence/Understanding [00:18:28]
Forming Analogies/JPG Compression Article [00:30:17]
Compositional Generalisation [00:37:28]
Systematicity [00:47:08]
Language of Thought [00:51:28]
Bigbench (Conceptual Combinations) [00:57:37]
Symbol Grounding [01:11:13]
World Models [01:26:43]
Theory of Mind [01:30:57]
Refs (this is truncated, full list on YT video description):
Moving Beyond Mimicry in Artificial Intelligence (Raphael Millière)
https://nautil.us/moving-beyond-mimicry-in-artificial-intelligence-238504/
On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜 (Bender et al)
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922
ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web (Ted Chiang)
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web
The Debate Over Understanding in AI's Large Language Models (Melanie Mitchell)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.13966
Talking About Large Language Models (Murray Shanahan)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.03551
Climbing towards NLU: On Meaning, Form, and Understanding in the Age of Data (Bender)
https://aclanthology.org/2020.acl-main.463/
The symbol grounding problem (Stevan Harnad)
https://arxiv.org/html/cs/9906002
Why the Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus is interesting and important for AI (Mitchell)
https://aiguide.substack.com/p/why-the-abstraction-and-reasoning
Linguistic relativity (Sapir–Whorf hypothesis)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity
Cooperative principle (Grice's four maxims of conversation - quantity, quality, relation, and manner)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle
Tim Wu, a professor of law at Columbia University and a former leading member of President Biden’s antitrust committee, joins Scott to discuss the state of antitrust regulation as well as his decision to leave his position at the White House. Follow Tim on Twitter, @superwuster.
Scott opens with his thoughts on the recent lawsuits against popular AI art generators. He then shares his opinion on CO-CEOS.
Algebra of Happiness: give yourself license to be down.
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In his first extensive interview since he stepped down as the Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy on the National Economic Council, Tim Wu shares what he learned in the West Wing. We find out who holds most sway with the President, how Lina Khan undid any perception that there is any antitrust exception for “nice guys,” and get Wu’s predictions on lawsuits against Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. Also: Kara presses him on why Biden — who campaigned on getting rid of Section 230 and hinted at breaking up Big Tech — hasn’t been able to make much headway when it comes to regulating Silicon Valley.
Before the interview, Kara and Nayeema look at exits, from Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand, to Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings. And among all the exits, they also discuss one possible return: Meta’s looming decision regarding Donald Trump’s Facebook account.
You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter at @karaswisher and @nayeema.
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I had a fascinating discussion about Robert Moses and The Power Broker with Professor Kenneth T. Jackson.
He's the pre-eminent historian on NYC and author of Robert Moses and The Modern City: The Transformation of New York.
He answers:
* Why are we so much worse at building things today?
* Would NYC be like Detroit without the master builder?
* Does it take a tyrant to stop NIMBY?
Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here.
Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes.
Timestamps
(0:00:00) Preview + Intro
(0:11:13) How Moses Gained Power
(0:18:22) Moses Saved NYC?
(0:27:31) Moses the Startup Founder?
(0:32:34) The Case Against Moses Highways
(0:50:30) NIMBYism
(1:02:44) Is Progress Cyclical
(1:11:13) Friendship with Caro
(1:19:50) Moses the Longtermist?
Get full access to Dwarkesh Podcast at www.dwarkesh.com/subscribe
Natural language processing expert and PhD student Melanie Subbiah sits down with Jon Krohn to discuss GPT-3, its strengths and weaknesses, and the future of NLP.
In this episode you will learn:
What is GPT-3? [6:24]
The strengths and weaknesses of GPT-3 [14:38]
What is autoregression? [18:03]
GPT-3's new fine-tuning abilities [20:02]
Bias issues with GPT-3 [22:47]
The future of natural language processing models [27:54]
How Melanie ended up working at OpenAI [38:13]
Melanie’s self-study process [42:19]
Melanie's work on OpenAI API [45:45]
How to address the climate change and bias issues that cloud discussions of large natural language models [49:40]
Why Melanie chose to do a PhD at Columbia University [1:01:17]
The machine learning tools Melanie’s most excited about [1:08:09]
Additional materials: www.superdatascience.com/559
Peter Woit is a theoretical physicist, mathematician, critic of string theory, and author of the popular science blog Not Even Wrong. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Peter’s website: http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/
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Love and Math (book): https://amzn.to/3If7B8m
The Second Creation (book): https://amzn.to/3rlWzIu
PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman
YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips
SUPPORT & CONNECT:
– Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast
– Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
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– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
– Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:22) – Physics vs mathematics
(21:51) – Beauty of mathematics
(43:42) – String theory
(1:12:15) – Theory of everything
(1:32:23) – Twistor theory and spinors
(1:48:50) – Nobel Prize likelihood for theory of everything
(1:52:36) – Simulating physics
(1:56:07) – Sci-Fi, aliens and space
(2:05:19) – Responsibility of scientists
Carl Hart is a psychologist at Columbia University. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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– ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod and use code LexPod to get 3 months free
EPISODE LINKS:
Carl’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/drcarlhart
Carl’s Website: https://drcarlhart.com
Drug Use for Grown-Ups (book): https://amzn.to/3lVpq2Y
PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman
YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips
SUPPORT & CONNECT:
– Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast
– Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
– Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:33) – The experience of drugs
(18:38) – Drug use for grownups
(24:21) – Studies on drugs
(25:31) – Negative effects of drugs
(30:59) – Should all drugs be legalized
(36:27) – War on drugs: positive or negative
(42:19) – Proper, positive, and misuse of drugs
(46:40) – Recovery
(53:34) – Drug depiction in movies
(57:05) – How the study of drugs changed Carl
(59:28) – Formative memories
(1:03:57) – Greatest hip hop artist of all time
(1:07:19) – What mind altering drugs teach us
(1:11:26) – Advice for young people
(1:13:31) – The meaning of life
Brian Greene is a theoretical physicist. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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– NI: https://www.ni.com/perspectives
EPISODE LINKS:
Brian’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/bgreene
Brian’s Website: http://www.briangreene.org/
Until the End of Time (book): https://amzn.to/2XuqXUi
PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman
YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips
SUPPORT & CONNECT:
– Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast
– Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
– Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(06:53) – Entropy
(15:01) – Consciousness
(31:20) – Quantum gravity
(34:40) – String theory
(48:07) – Time
(1:00:39) – Free will
(1:05:02) – Emergence and complexity
(1:12:14) – The Big Bang
(1:25:13) – Extraterrestrial life
(1:35:35) – Space exploration
(1:43:33) – Fear of death
Vincent Racaniello is a virologist, immunologist, and microbiologist at Columbia. He is a co-author of the textbook Principles of Virology and co-host of This Week in Virology podcast. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
– Privacy: https://privacy.com/lex to get $5 added to your account
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EPISODE LINKS:
Vincent’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/profvrr
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Vincent’s Podcast: https://www.microbe.tv/
Vincent’s Website: http://www.virology.ws/
Vincent’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/profvrr
PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman
YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips
SUPPORT & CONNECT:
– Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast
– Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
– Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(10:24) – Microbiology by numbers
(15:47) – From bacteria to an organism
(23:46) – AlphaFold 2
(27:44) – Simulating an evolutionary arms race
(53:11) – The most terrifying virus
(1:14:54) – SARS-CoV-2
(1:29:38) – Coronaviruses and Influenza. What’s the difference?
(1:35:45) – Vaccines
(1:41:43) – Lex on his reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine shot
(1:47:39) – Modern vaccines
(1:52:39) – How does mRNA vaccine work?
(1:55:26) – Are mRNA vaccines safe?
(2:21:52) – Lex on trust in authority
(2:36:59) – Ivermectin
(2:43:39) – Hydroxychloroquine
(2:48:22) – Variants and mutations
(2:55:20) – Testing
(3:03:27) – How does COVID-19 spread?
(3:06:37) – Masks
(3:15:05) – Bret Weinstein vs Sam Harris
(3:18:39) – This Week in Virology
(3:28:19) – Advice for young people
(3:30:42) – Meaning of life
Today we’re joined by Samory Kpotufe, an associate professor at Columbia University and program chair of the 2021 Conference on Learning Theory (COLT).
In our conversation with Samory, we explore his research at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and learning theory, and his goal of reaching self-tuning, adaptive algorithms. We discuss Samory’s research in transfer learning and other potential procedures that could positively affect transfer, as well as his work understanding unsupervised learning including how clustering could be applied to real-world applications like cybersecurity, IoT (Smart homes, smart city sensors, etc) using methods like dimension reduction, random projection, and others. If you enjoyed this interview, you should definitely check out our conversation with Jelani Nelson on the “Theory of Computation.”
The complete show notes for this episode can be found at https://twimlai.com/go/512.
There's probably nobody better at synthesizing massive events like Columbia professor Adam Tooze. His book Crashed, which came out in 2018, was probably the definitive take on the Great Financial Crisis. Later this year he has another book coming out on the Coronavirus crisis, and the political and economic lessons therein. On this Odd Lots, we speak with him about the extraordinary year, what it's meant for the U.S., China, Europe, etc., and the change in the economic landscape.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway talk about the growing power of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon during the COVID-19 pandemic. Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai joins to talk about Google’s impact on society, its feud with Fortnite maker Epic Games, whether he believes America is headed in the right direction, and more; then, Columbia University professor Tim Wu talks with Kara and Scott about the future of tech antitrust, how China has run circles around the US in tech policy, and why Facebook faces the greatest legal risk; finally, The Verge’s Casey Newton drops in to discuss the TikTok acquisition drama, disinformation on Facebook, and Joe Biden’s plan to repeal section 230 of the CDA. Plus: Comedian Roy Wood Jr. has some predictions about Apple's next iPhone.
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In this audio version of the first episode of our live video series Pivot Schooled, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway talk about the rapidly changing media industry, President Trump's attempt to force a sale of TikTok's US operations, and what happens when disinformation is coming from inside the (White) House. They also answer questions from viewers and make predictions, alongside special guest predictor Kathy Griffin.
Get your tickets for the next Pivot Schooled, "The Big Four," at PivotSchooled.com.
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Tim Wu, a professor of law, science and technology at Columbia University, author, and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times breaks down everything you need to know about antitrust. Tim and Scott discuss the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee’s hearing as well as what history can teach us about powerful corporations.
Plus, Scott shares his thoughts on the busy earnings week and why a CEO’s ability to create a strong narrative has overwhelmed any sort of analytics. Looking at you, Elon.
Office Hours: what Twitter’s subscription model could look like, understanding your cofounder’s strengths, and certification opportunities.
Please take our quick survey to tell us how we can improve The Prof G Show: https://forms.gle/xVRfqCKrrNr9xzor5
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Phil Howard, the Oxford Internet Institute director and author of Lie Machines, and Emily Bell, the director of Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism, talk with Recode's Kara Swisher about the state of disinformation and propaganda in the coronavirus pandemic and how what we're hearing this year compares to the state-organized propaganda that infected elections in 2016. They explain some of the most pervasive conspiracy theories and campaigns — including the untruthful documentary-style movie "Plandemic," how Bill Gates replaced George Soros as the leading right-wing boogeyman, and President Trump's amorphous "Obamagate" insinuations. Bell and Howard also talk about why these lies are spreading so effectively, the celebrities and influencers that are helping them along, and how the big tech platforms are faring in the face of this challenge. Plus: How Facebook built "misinformation factories" in its apps.
Featuring:
Emily Bell (@emilybell), director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism
Phil Howard (@pnhoward), director, Oxford Internet Institute and author, Lie Machines.
Host:
Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large
More to explore:
On Reset, Arielle Duhaime-Ross explores why — and how — tech is changing everything.
On Recode Media, Peter Kafka interviews business titans, journalists, comedians and podcasters about the collision of tech and media.
On Pivot, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway talk about the big tech news stories of the week, who's winning, who's failing, and what comes next.
And on Land of the Giants, Jason Del Rey chronicled the rise of Amazon. Season 2 will focus on Netflix and is coming soon!
About Recode by Vox:
Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.
Follow Us:
Newsletter: Recode Daily
Twitter: @Recode and @voxdotcom
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