American theoretical physicist
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Watch the screenplay reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyAJad2rPlg Based on Concepts from the novel Considering SomeplacElse By Barry B.L. Lindstrom Get to know the writer: What is your screenplay about? The Galactic Council has seen enough and has voted 8 to 1 to eliminate all humanoid Earthlings. Padrin, the lone dissenter, an expert extra-terrestrial world saver, must now save humanity using only the positive actions and interactions of individual humans as evidence. In this, the pilot episode, Padrin's android, Facto, unexpectedly connects with the plight of suddenly, violently, orphaned 18 year old Charlene and her 12 year old sister, Jennifer who, apparently, are being forced into a polygamist cult run by their only next of kin. Padrin, sensing that Facto's discovery is something far beyond coincidence contemplates invoking Galactic Assertion 5: There MUST be something that moves a system from its current state to one that is better for the planet and its population, in defiance of all probabilities, patterns and past behaviors. We Earthlings call it Fate, Destiny, Faith, Luck and Random Chance, but the rest of the galaxy calls it: NaturalAwe. What genres does your screenplay fall under? Consider, if you will, “the twilight zone” as genre. Half hour serialized Character driven episodes centered around the idea that: The Galactic Council has been monitoring the behavior of planet populations for eons.Whenever a planet's ecosystem is threatened or a planet's population threatens other planets, the council, after following due process can directly intervene without warning, Unless, of course, there is significant evidence of NaturalAwe. Why should this screenplay be made into a TV show? Sometimes it seems like things have never been worse, That we are incapable of fixing that which is broken, That those who blame everything on those not-like-us are in control, That the doom and gloom dystopian vision of our entertainment depicts our destiny. As one who was raised on lessons gathered from Good-triumphs-over-Evil 50s and 60s Broadcast Television, (Occasionally impacted by exemplary public education), built a highly successful Information Systems career based on Richard Feynman's “Perspective is worth 80 IQ points”, and has extensive experiential evidence that there is no such thing as coincidence, I feel we need to deliver SOMETHING that might just move us to ways that are better for the planet and its population, in defiance of all probabilities, patterns and past behaviors. Subscribe to the podcast: https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod https://www.instagram.com/wildsoundpod/ https://www.facebook.com/wildsoundpod
Lo que un genio de la física escribió… dieciséis meses después de perder al amor de su vida. Richard Feynman fue muchas cosas: un físico galardonado con el Premio Nobel, un profesor entusiasta, un padre dedicado y—créelo o no—un hábil percusionista de bongós. Pero más allá de la bata de laboratorio y las aulas, también fue un hombre de un amor profundo y una sensibilidad conmovedora. El corazón de Feynman brillaba tanto como su mente. Se casó con su amor de la adolescencia, Arline Greenbaum, incluso mientras ella luchaba contra la tuberculosis. La salud de Arline se deterioró tan rápidamente que pasó toda su vida matrimonial en hospitales y sanatorios, pero su vínculo nunca se debilitó. Durante ese tiempo, Richard le escribía cartas llenas de ingenio, ternura y una devoción inquebrantable casi todos los días. Muchas de esas cartas se encuentran en su extraordinaria colección Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track. Pero la más conmovedora de todas es la que escribió dieciséis meses después de su muerte, y que ahora leo para ti. Su historia—una mente brillante, un amor inquebrantable—sigue tocando el corazón de lectores y admiradores hasta hoy. De hecho, la casa de subastas Sotheby's publicó recientemente un artículo precioso sobre su relación extraordinaria. Puedes leerlo aquí: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/no-other-love-heart-wrenching-letters-from-richard-feynman-to-his-late-wife-arline Créditos: Programa grabado y producido por Gabriel Porras para murmullosradiantes.com y gabrielvoice.com Música: Ambient Melancholic Background by universefield at pixabay.com Usada con licencia. Portada creada por Ricardo Gil, scravricardo@gmail.com Imagen de Freepik.es. Usada con licencia.
What a physics genius wrote... sixteen months after losing the love of his life... Richard Feynman was many things: a Nobel Prize–winning physicist, an enthusiastic teacher, a devoted father, and—believe it or not—a talented bongo drummer. But beyond the lab coat and lecture halls, he was also a man of profound love and deep emotional insight. Feynman's heart shone as brightly as his mind. He married his childhood sweetheart, Arline Greenbaum, even as she battled terminal tuberculosis. Arline's health declined so rapidly that she spent their entire marriage in hospitals and sanatoriums, yet their bond never weakened. Throughout this time, Richard wrote to Arline letters full of wit, warmth, and undying devotion almost every day. Many of these can be found in his remarkable collection Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track. But the most touching of them all is one he wrote to her sixteen months after she passed away, and which I read for you today. Their story—a brilliant mind, an unbreakable love—continues to move readers and admirers to this day. In fact, the auction house Sotheby's recently published a beautiful article on their extraordinary relationship. You can find it here: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/no-other-love-heart-wrenching-letters-from-richard-feynman-to-his-late-wife-arline Credits: Programme recorded and produced by Gabriel Porras for radiantwhispers.com and gabrielvoice.com Music: Ambient Melancholic Background by universefield at pixabay.com Used under license. Cover created by Ricardo Gil, scravricardo@gmail.com Image by Freepik.es. Used with license.
What does it take to make a living betting on politics? Can prediction markets offer insights about the future that other analyses cannot? To find out, ChinaTalk interviewed Domer, a professional prediction markets bettor. Domer is the number one trader by volume on Polymarket, and he's been trading since 2007. He initially entered this world through poker, but now makes bets about who will win foreign elections, whether wars will start, and whether bills will become law. We discuss… Why some issues — like Romanian elections, the NYC mayoral race, or Zelenskyy's outfit choices — can attract hundreds of millions of dollars in trading volume, Systematic biases in prediction markets, including why they overestimate the likelihood of a Taiwan contingency, What happens to prediction markets in the absence of insider trading regulations, Why prediction markets are still a solo endeavor, and what a profit-maximizing team of traders would look like, Bonus: How betting markets backfired on Romanian nationalists, what AI can teach you about betting, and other insights on winning from one of Domer's contemporaries. Outro music: Bob Dylan - Rambling, Gambling Willie (YouTube Link) This episode is brought to you by ElevenLabs. I've been on the hunt for years for the perfect reader app that puts AI audio at the center of its design. Over the past few months, the ElevenReader app has earned a spot on my iPhone's home screen and now gets about 30 minutes of use every day. I plow through articles using Eleven Reader's beautiful voices and love having Richard Feynman read me AI news stories — as well as, you know, Matilda every once in a while, too. I'm also a power user of its bookmark feature, which the ElevenReader team added after I requested it on Twitter. ChinaTalk's newsletter content even comes preloaded in the feed. Check out the ElevenReader app if you're looking for the best mobile reader on the market. Oh, and by the way — if you ever need to transcribe anything, ElevenLabs' Scribe model has transformed our workflow for getting transcripts out to you on the newsletter. It's crossed the threshold from “95% good” to “99.5% amazing,” saving our production team hours every week. Check it out the next time you need something transcribed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Last time we spoke about Operation Downfall. The Allies, under General Krueger, initiated a decisive campaign to clear the Japanese from Luzon. As they faced the entrenched Shobu Group, challenges included treacherous terrain and a resilient enemy. Simultaneously, Japan braced for an invasion, mobilizing reinforcements and devising defensive strategies to ward off the impending Allied assault. As July approached, General Yamashita's forces prepared to execute a final breakout, but progress was hampered by relentless guerrilla attacks and adverse weather conditions. With Operation Downfall looming, Allied troops focused on strategic landings in Kyushu and Honshu, driven by a relentless determination to defeat the Japanese militarily. The intense battles of Luzon became a precursor to this monumental operation, marking a turning point in the Pacific War. This episode is The Siege of Japan Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945. Boy I have been waiting a long time to come to this point. One of the most significant events in human history that deeply affects us to this very day. Nuclear war is as much a threat today as it was during the cold war. The dropping of the Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were deeply complicated events fraught with issues of morality. It goes without saying whether or not the bombs needed to be dropped, their actual impact on the surrender of Japan and so forth are still issues hotly debated to this very day. I have spoken on the issue countless times on my personal channel and podcast, but I figure to do this subject justice I will create a full episode for it. Thus in this episode we are going to just cover what happened, but rest assured I will come back to this later on. As we last explored, following the successful invasion of Luzon in the Philippines, along with the fall of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, American forces began preparing for the final invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. This operation was codenamed Operation Downfall. One key initiative leading up to this invasion was a comprehensive air-sea blockade and bombardment campaign against Japan itself. Previously, we detailed the extensive firebombing and precision bombing efforts executed by General LeMay's 21st Bomber Command. However, during this crucial period, the B-29 Superfortress bombers undertook a distinct operation under the codename Starvation. This single operation would be one of the largest factors that contributed to the surrender of Japan and its one most people have never heard of. In July 1944, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz proposed a bold plan to use B-29 Superfortress bombers to mine the waterways surrounding the Japanese Home Islands. Although Generals Henry H. Arnold and Walter Hansell expressed concerns that this mining campaign could distract from the B-29's primary role as a strategic bombardment aircraft, they eventually agreed to assign one bomber group to focus on aerial mining when conditions permitted. On December 22, Hansell's 21st Bomber Command was directed to formulate a naval mining program aimed at executing between 150 to 200 sorties each month, which was set to begin in April 1945. However, by this time, General Curtis LeMay had taken command of the 21st Bomber Command. LeMay was notably enthusiastic about the idea and successfully recommended to Washington an upgraded mining program that aimed to deploy up to 1,500 mines each month using a full B-29 wing. LeMay viewed aerial mining in a different light than Arnold or Hansell, seeing it as a vital extension of strategic bombing. He recognized that most of Japan's war production materials, as well as a significant portion of its food supplies, were imported from regions such as China, Southeast Asia, and the Dutch East Indies. Japan's industrial heartland is primarily found on Honshu, its largest and most industrialized island, while Shikoku, another island, also lacks essential resources such as iron ore and high-quality coal. These crucial materials were sourced from Kyushu and Hokkaido, both of which are other Japanese islands. All these resources were transported by sea, so without easy access to raw materials, Japan's industrial output would come to a grinding halt. The only aircraft capable of deploying mines effectively where they were needed were the B-29s. Areas such as the Inland Sea, the Sea of Japan, and the Korean Peninsula were out of reach for other Allied aircraft. Additionally, Allied submarines could only venture into these perilous waters with great risk. Notably, about 80% of Japan's merchant fleet utilized the Shimonoseki Strait, a critical waterway that separates Kyushu from Honshu. Understanding the strategic advantage of closing this strait, LeMay decided to allocate an entire wing of B-29s specifically to mine this vital route. Brigadier General John Davies commanded the 313th Bombardment Wing, tasked with deploying approximately 2,000 naval mines each month into Japanese waters. The primary goals of this operation were to prevent essential raw materials and food supplies from reaching the Home Islands, hinder the supply and mobilization of Japanese military forces, and disrupt transportation routes in the Inland Sea of Japan. Between March 27 and April 12, Davies' bombers targeted key enemy shipping bases located in Kure, Sasebo, and Hiroshima. They also focused on the Shimonoseki Strait, a narrow and strategically important waterway that links the Inland Sea with the Tsushima Strait. Notably, after these attacks, this strait was successfully closed for two weeks. On May 3 and 5, the 313th Bombardment Wing laid down a total of 1,422 mines in the waters surrounding the Shimonoseki Strait, as well as near major urban centers like Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka. These efforts aimed to severely disrupt maritime commerce between Japan's major industrial areas. Just a week later, the minefields expanded from the Shimonoseki Strait to include Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands, and northwest Honshu, the largest island containing Tokyo. By the end of that month, these mines were proving remarkably effective, accounting for the sinking of more ships than Japanese submarines. In fact, within the Shimonoseki Strait alone, 113 ships had been sunk. Between June 7 and July 8, American forces expanded and fortified minefields along the western coast of Japan while also replenishing the existing minefields in the Shimonoseki Strait and the Inland Sea. During this effort, they successfully laid a total of 3,542 mines across 14 missions. The "total blockade" officially commenced on July 9 and continued until the end of the war. Throughout this period, American forces executed 474 sorties, dropping another 3,746 mines that replenished existing minefields and extended coverage to harbors in Korea. In total, Brigadier General Davies conducted 46 missions that laid down 26 minefields containing 12,135 mines. Remarkably, only 15 B-29s were lost during these operations. In turn, the mines accounted for the sinking or damaging of 670 Japanese ships, with a total loss of 1.25 million tons. This mining campaign effectively strangled Japanese industry, as the denial of essential raw materials to factories proved more disruptive than the direct bombing of the plants themselves. Despite the clear vulnerability of Japan's economy to disruptions in coastal shipping, Japanese authorities were alarmingly unprepared to address the threat posed by air-dropped mines. By August 1945, Japan had committed 349 ships and 20,000 personnel to counter the Starvation campaign, but these efforts were overwhelmingly ineffective. The shipping crisis escalated to such a degree that searchlights and anti-aircraft batteries were redeployed from urban centers to defend expected mining targets. Additionally, suicide boats were employed in desperate attempts to clear the minefields. Royal Navy historian S.W. Roskill commented on the situation, stating, “The blockade had, in fact, been far more successful than we realized at the time. Although submarines initially played a critical role in enforcing the blockade, it was the air-laid mines that ultimately strangled Japan.” Japanese officials shared this assessment. A director from a Tokyo steel company reflected on the situation, noting that the denial of essential raw materials to factories caused far greater disruption than the direct bombing of the plants themselves. This contradicted the views of US Army Air Forces experts back in Washington. In a striking remark after the war, a Japanese minesweeping officer told American forces, “The result of B-29 mining was so effective against shipping that it eventually starved the country. You could have likely shortened the war by starting this campaign earlier.” Meanwhile, General LeMay continued his firebombing campaign against Japan. By the end of May, urban areas around Tokyo Bay had been devastated, prompting the 21st Bomber Command to shift focus westward toward the densely populated industrial complexes lining Osaka Bay. On June 1, 521 B-29s were dispatched to bomb industrial targets situated along the Yodo River, with an escort of 148 P-51 fighters. Unfortunately, an undetected thunderstorm struck en route, which meant only 27 P-51s reached Osaka, while another 27 crashed, and the remaining fighters had to return to Iwo Jima. Despite these complications, the B-29s bombed from altitudes ranging between 18,000 and 28,500 feet, successfully dropping 2,788 tons of incendiary bombs on Osaka. The attack resulted in the burning of 3.15 square miles, destroying 136,107 houses and 4,222 factories. Four days later, on June 3, 530 unescorted B-29 Superfortresses launched a bombing raid on the city of Kobe. Of those, 473 aircraft targeted the city, resulting in the destruction of 4.35 square miles. This devastating strike led to the demolition of 51,399 buildings, while another 928 suffered significant damage. The raid, however, came with losses, as 11 bombers were downed, and 176 were damaged in the operation. On June 7, 449 B-29s returned to Osaka. Despite facing heavy cloud cover that restricted visibility, they managed to burn an additional 2.21 square miles of the city, destroying another 55,333 buildings. By the conclusion of General Curtis LeMay's maximum-effort area bombing campaign, the six most significant industrial cities in Japan, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Yokohama, and Kawasaki, had been left in ruins. Major factories were either destroyed or severely damaged, while thousands of smaller household and feeder industrial units were consumed by flames. Casualty figures surged into six figures, leaving millions of people homeless. The evacuation of survivors further complicated efforts to secure labor for the factories that remained operational. Japan's air-raid protection system proved woefully inadequate to withstand a protracted siege by very heavy bombers. The system lacked sufficient organization, trained personnel, shelters, fire-fighting equipment, and facilities for relief and evacuation. Additionally, there was a significant deficiency in civilian indoctrination regarding emergency procedures. Under the relentless pressure of repeated major attacks, local Air Raid Precaution organizations collapsed, adding strain to an already overburdened imperial government. Japanese civilians, who had been conditioned by victory propaganda, displayed little of the discipline that helped German citizens endure years of aerial bombardment. As news of military defeats and the impact of B-29 precision strikes filtered into the great cities, residents began to lose confidence in their leaders' ability to protect them or care for the victims of the attacks. Abe Motoki, the Minister of Home Affairs at the time, later remarked, “I believe that after the raids on Tokyo on May 23-24, 1945, civilian defense measures in that city, as well as in other parts of Japan, were considered a futile effort.” Regarding the operational cost of this campaign for the 21st Bomber Command, it was not considered excessively burdensome. Over the course of 17 maximum-effort incendiary attacks, LeMay dispatched a total of 6,960 B-29s, which dropped 41,592 tons of bombs. The losses amounted to 136 B-29s, averaging only 1.9% of the sorties, a rate significantly lower than what had been endured in earlier months, and quite acceptable by the standards of conventional strategic bombing. Meteorologists predicted that the summer monsoon would keep Japan's skies covered with clouds for most of the upcoming months, from June to August. As a result, LeMay shifted strategies under what became known as the Empire Plan. This approach prioritized targeting industrial and military sites during daylight hours when the weather permitted, while secondary cities that had sufficient industrial capability became targets for nighttime area attacks. This change meant that since no single target warranted a full four-wing maximum effort, multiple missions could be scheduled in a single day. Accordingly, on June 9, 110 B-29s attacked three aircraft factories located in Narao, Atsuta, and Akashi. The strikes successfully destroyed the factories in Narao and Atsuta, but an unfortunate miscalculation led to the bombing of the town near Akashi. The following day, June 10, a force of 280 B-29s, escorted by 107 P-51 Mustang fighters, targeted six distinct sites in the Tokyo Bay area. The mission yielded significant results, with all targets sustaining heavy damage. Finally, on June 15, 516 B-29s were dispatched for one last firebombing raid against Osaka and the neighboring city of Amagasaki. In this combined assault, 444 bombers dropped over 1,350 tons of incendiary bombs, incinerating an additional 1.9 square miles in Osaka and more than half a square mile in Amagasaki. Starting on June 17, General Curtis LeMay's firebombing campaigns began to focus on medium-sized secondary cities across Japan. On that day, 477 B-29 Superfortresses targeted the cities of Omuta, Hamamatsu, Yokkaichi, and Kagoshima, burning a combined total of six square miles in these urban areas. The success of this initial multi-target mission ensured the continuation of the program, establishing an operational pattern that would remain standard during the final weeks of the war. In total, multiple incendiary attacks were conducted on sixteen occasions, averaging about two missions per week. Between June 17 and August 14, American forces carried out 8,014 sorties, dropping a staggering 54,184 tons of incendiaries across 58 secondary cities. On June 22, 446 B-29s were dispatched to strike six targets located in southern Honshu, including the crucial Kure Naval Arsenal. In this mission, 382 bombers released 2,103 tons of bombs, inflicting heavy damage to these essential manufacturing facilities. Just four days later, on June 26, a force of 510 B-29s, accompanied by 148 P-51 Mustang escorts, targeted locations in southern Honshu and the nearby island of Shikoku. However, dense clouds over much of the area complicated assembly and forced many aircraft to attack targets of opportunity individually or in small groups. As a result, adverse weather conditions would delay subsequent daytime raids until July 24. In the coordinated strike program that commenced in June, the decision to focus on either the Empire Plan or urban industrial targets was largely influenced by weather conditions. As the program took shape, the 315th Bombardment Wing (VH) became available for combat operations. This wing operated somewhat independently from the other bomber units, with its activities significantly guided by the specialized equipment of its aircraft. Authorized for deployment in the Pacific in December 1944, the 315th settled at Northwest Field, Guam, during May and June. Its commander, Brigadier General Frank A. Armstrong, Jr., was a seasoned veteran of the strategic air offensive against Germany. The B-29s of the 315th Wing differed in two key respects from those of other units. They were equipped with the AN/APQ-7 (Eagle) radar, a sophisticated radar system designed for bombing, instead of the conventional AN/APQ-13 radar. The latter had primarily served as a navigational aid. While crews had become adept at using the AN/APQ-13 for night or poor-weather bombing, it lacked the precision necessary for accurate strikes. The Eagle radar, however, offered significantly greater definition and, although it required a long bomb run averaging seventy miles, this was not considered a serious hindrance in the tactical context of Japan. To further enhance its night-bombing capabilities, the Superfortresses had been stripped of all armament except for the tail gun. This modification, along with the Eagle radar, clearly marked the 315th as a dedicated night-bombing unit. There were various proposals for the use of these specially equipped B-29s, including high-altitude bombing, area bombing, and aerial mining. However, by the time the 315th Wing was ready for combat, the 313th Bombardment Wing had already gained proficiency in aerial mining, while all wings had become adept at area bombing using the AN/APQ-13. Training for the 315th had focused heavily on night radar tactics, with less emphasis on visual bombing and daytime formation flights. It was evident that if the Eagle radar was to undergo a thorough scientific evaluation, it should be tested against a specific set of targets that were preferably large in size and located along the coastline. In the view of the 21st Bomber Command, the oil industry met these requirements perfectly. The 315th Bombardment Wing initiated its specialized campaign on June 26 with a targeted strike against the Utsube Oil Refinery in Yokkaichi, the top-priority target. By August 14, the wing had conducted 15 additional missions against a total of 10 targets, which included various petroleum refineries and synthetic plants, such as the Maruzen Oil Company in Wakayama, Mitsubishi Oil Company in Kawasaki, and Nippon Oil Company plants spread across Akita, Kansai, Kudamatsu, and Amagasaki, as well as the Imperial Fuel Industry Company in Ube and Toa Fuel Industry in Wakayama. During the campaign, the 315th Wing dispatched a total of 1,200 B-29s, 1,095 of which successfully bombed their primary targets, dropping 9,084 tons of 500-pound general-purpose bombs deemed particularly effective against the scattered installations. The increase in bomb load capacity was made possible by stripping the planes of unnecessary equipment and conducting bombing missions individually at night. As the crews gained experience, they were able to increase the average weight carried from 14,631 pounds during the first mission to 20,684 pounds by August 9. Despite concerns about safety from removing most of the aircraft's armaments, only four planes were lost and 66 sustained damage throughout the campaign. The 20th Air Force estimated that the B-29 attacks led to the destruction of approximately 6 million barrels of tank storage capacity, and the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) reported that refining capacity had been reduced from 90,000 barrels a day in December 1941 to around 17,000 barrels. However, the strategic impact was more apparent than real, as many storage tanks were empty and refinery production had fallen to just 4% of capacity before the very heavy bomber campaign began. The lack of precise intelligence regarding the state of Japan's economy had justified the emphasis on the oil program as a form of reinsurance. Nevertheless, the blockade had effectively severed the nation's oil resources, resulting in tankers remaining idle at the docks. On July 1, Admiral Halsey's 3rd Fleet departed San Pedro Bay to initiate the first preliminary strikes in preparation for Operation Olympic. This operation involved battleships and heavy cruisers conducting surface bombardments of industrial targets in eastern Japan, while lighter forces performed anti-shipping sweeps along the coast. Additionally, a fleet of submarines advanced ahead of Admiral McCain's Task Force 38 to eliminate picket boats and establish lifeguard positions. At 18:15 on July 9, the force began its 25-knot approach toward the Home Islands, launching its first strikes against the Tokyo area at 04:00 on July 10. A total of 1,732 sorties were executed, targeting locations from Koriyama to Hamamatsu, dropping 454 tons of bombs and 1,648 rockets over Honshu with negligible opposition. American airmen reported the destruction of 109 enemy aircraft and damage to 231 during these strikes. Following this, Halsey's fleet moved north to bombard Hokkaido and northern Honshu, which were beyond the effective range of the B-29s and had previously evaded attack. At 05:59 on July 14, Rear-Admiral John Shafroth's Bombardment Group Able, consisting primarily of three battleships and two heavy cruisers, was tasked with attacking the Kamaishi Works of the Japan Iron Company. By midday, Shafroth's forces had opened fire on Kamaishi, marking the first surface bombardment of Japan by a hostile fleet in over 80 years. Between 12:10 and 14:19, a total of 802 16-inch shells, 728 8-inch shells, and 825 5-inch shells were expended, setting the town ablaze as key industrial and residential targets were hit and resulting in the sinking of one oil tanker, two barges, and one small ship in the harbor. Simultaneously, McCain's carriers closed to within 80 nautical miles of Japan, launching 1,391 sorties against Hokkaido and northern Honshu to target railways, shipping, and airfields, again facing only light resistance. In the ensuing strikes, American planes sank over 50,000 tons of shipping and naval craft, including the destroyer Tachibana, four minesweepers, eight naval auxiliaries, and around 20 merchant vessels, with significant losses occurring at Muroran and Hakodate. In addition, 25 enemy planes were destroyed, while American losses totaled 24 aircraft and 17 airmen, about half of whom were lost in combat. Task Force 38 launched another assault on July 15, executing 966 combat sorties that dropped 355 tons of bombs and expended 2,093 rockets. This operation resulted in the sinking of 65 vessels and damaging 128 others, as well as the destruction of 48 locomotives and damage to 28. Widespread destruction was inflicted on several facilities, particularly the Aomori–Hakodate railcar ferry system, which transported 30% of the coal between Hokkaido and Honshu. The strikes devastated the ferry system, sinking eight ferries, beaching eight more, and damaging two. In total, 70 auxiliary sailing colliers were sunk, and 11 were damaged, along with 10 steel freighters lost and 7 damaged. The ferry strikes were the brainchild of Halsey's operations officer, Captain Ralph “Rollo” Wilson. “When the first action reports began to sift in,” Halsey related: He snatched them up and pored over them; the ferries were not mentioned. Later reports also ignored them. Rollo was sulking and cursing when the final reports arrived. I heard him whistle and saw him beam. “Six ferries sunk!” he said. “Pretty soon we'll have ‘em moving their stuff by oxcarts and skiffs!” Additionally, 20 city blocks in Kushiro were razed. The most significant outcome of these operations was the virtual severance of Hokkaido from Honshu. By the end of the raids, Halsey's 3rd Fleet had achieved the sinking of 140 ships and small craft, damaging 235 others, and destroying 38 planes while damaging 46. Meanwhile, Rear-Admiral Oscar Badger's Bombardment Group Baker, composed of three battleships, two light cruisers, and eight destroyers, was assigned to bombard Muroran. Between 09:36 and 10:25, this group fired 860 16-inch shells at the Nihon Steel Company and the Wanishi Ironworks, targeting both the coal liquefaction plant and coke ovens. This bombardment inflicted severe damage on those facilities and resulted in the destruction or damage of 2,541 houses in Muroran. As Hasley recalled “These sweeps and bombardments accomplished more than destruction. they showed the enemy that we made no bones about playing in his front yard. From now on, we patrolled his channels and shelled his coast almost every night that the weather permitted.” Additionally, Rear-Admiral James Cary Jones' four light cruisers conducted a sweep along the east coast of Honshu to hunt for Japanese shipping; however, they reported no contacts during their mission. Early on July 16, Task Force 38 retired east of Honshu to begin refueling and rendezvoused with Admiral Rawlings' Task Force 37, which agreed to operate closely as an additional task group for Admiral Halsey. At 03:50 on July 17, the two task forces began launching strikes against central Honshu despite adverse weather conditions. The American forces executed 205 sorties targeting the Mito area, while British aircraft flew 87 sorties against airfields and railyards along the northwest coast of Honshu. Despite the bad weather, several small craft and locomotives were destroyed, though the operation resulted in the loss of nine aircraft and four airmen. Later that afternoon, Halsey detached Badger's augmented Bombardment Group to attack Hitachi, a significant industrial and electronics-producing city. The 53-minute bombardment commenced in fog and rain at 23:14, during which 1,207 16-inch shells, 267 14-inch shells, and 292 6-inch rounds were expended against the Tago and Mito Works of the Hitachi Manufacturing Company, as well as the Yamate Plant and copper refining facilities of Hitachi Mine, resulting in severe devastation. On July 18, McCain's two leading carriers launched a total of 592 sorties against Yokosuka, specifically targeting the heavily camouflaged battleship Nagato at the naval base. The attacks resulted in the sinking of one old cruiser, one minesweeper, one submarine, one incomplete destroyer, and three patrol vessels, in addition to damaging one subchaser, one old destroyer, and one old battleship. Although Nagato was hit multiple times and suffered heavy damage, it managed to stay afloat. Meanwhile, three carriers also targeted airfields and other opportunities in Tokyo, while Task Force 37 attacked a seaplane base at Kitaura and airfields at Nobara, Naruto, Chosi, Kanoike, Natori, and Kitakawa. The recent raids resulted in the destruction of 43 enemy planes and damage to 77 others on the ground, along with the destruction of three locomotives and the derailing of four electrified train cars by rockets. However, the American forces incurred losses of 14 aircraft and 18 aircrew, as the 3rd Fleet flyers reported encountering the fiercest anti-aircraft fire they had yet experienced. Additionally, Rear-Admiral Carl Holden's four light cruisers were detached during the night to sweep shipping off Sagami Bay and to target the radar site at Cape Nojima. On July 21, Captain Thomas Hederman's Destroyer Squadron 61, consisting of nine destroyers, was assigned to conduct another anti-shipping sweep off Sagami Bay. Pursuing four radar contacts, the destroyers engaged targets at midnight on July 22, firing guns and torpedoes from 7,000 yards. This action resulted in the sinking of the 800-ton freighter No.5 Hakutetsu Maru and damaging the 6,919-ton Enbun Maru. In response, Japanese coastal artillery, the minesweeper W-1, and subchaser Ch-42 returned fire, but Hederman's squadron successfully retired without damage. Although minor in scale, the Battle of Sagami Bay would ultimately be the last surface action of the war. Meanwhile, as part of Operation Barney, a planned submarine penetration of the Sea of Japan, nine submarines succeeded in sinking 27 Japanese merchant vessels and one submarine, totaling 54,786 tons. On June 8, the submarine Barb commenced her twelfth patrol, tasked with terrorizing the Sea of Okhotsk using her newly installed 5-inch rocket launchers. Over the following weeks, Skipper Commander Eugene “Luckey” Fluckey executed successful rocket bombardments on Shari, Hokkaido, and targets in Shikuka, Kashiho, and Shiritoru on Karafuto (southern Sakhalin), also employing the submarine's deck guns to destroy 35 sampans in the town of Kaihyo To. Observing Karafuto trains transporting military supplies to ports, Fluckey devised a plan to intercept these trains. Engineman Third Class Billy Hatfield recalled how, as a child, he had placed nuts on railroad ties and watched as the weight of passing trains cracked them between rail and tie. Realizing this principle could be adapted, he suggested rigging an automatic detonator. Fluckey had many volunteers for the mission, including a Japanese POW, and carefully selected Hatfield and seven others, deciding against leading the shore party himself. Just after midnight on July 23, 1945, Fluckey maneuvered Barb to within 950 yards of the Karafuto coast. Led by Lieutenant William Walker, the team launched two rubber rafts at 00:30. Before they left, Fluckey instructed them, “Boys, if you get stuck, head for Siberia, 130 miles north, following the mountain ranges. Good luck.” Upon reaching the shore, the Americans located the tracks and buried a 55-pound scuttling charge and battery beneath the rails, positioning it under a water tower they planned to use as a lookout. As Motor Machinist's Mate First Class John Markuson climbed up, he unexpectedly found he was scaling a sentry tower, causing him to retreat without alerting the sleeping guard. When a train passed, the team dove for cover before resuming their work after it had gone by. Shortly after 01:30, Walker's team signaled their return to Barb, which was now just 600 yards offshore. Fifteen minutes later, while the boats were halfway back, Fluckey heard the rumble of an approaching train. He hoisted a megaphone and urged the crew to “Paddle like the devil, boys!” At 01:47, a 16-car Japanese train struck Hatfield's detonator, resulting in a massive explosion that sent debris soaring 200 feet into the air and reportedly killed 150 Japanese. Minutes later, all eight Americans were safely aboard Barb, which then slipped back into the night, having successfully executed the only amphibious invasion of Japan during World War II. Returning to the main action, Halsey aimed to eliminate the remnants of the Combined Fleet at the heavily fortified Kure Naval Base. Consequently, Task Force 38 began launching the first of 1,363 sorties against ships and airfields in Kyushu, Shikoku, and Honshu, ringing the Inland Sea at 04:40 on July 24. A total of 599 tons of bombs and 1,615 rockets were unleashed over Kure, resulting in the sinking or damaging of 22 warships, which totaled 258,000 tons. Among the affected vessels were the battleships Hyuga, Ise, and Haruna; fleet carriers Amagi and Katsuragi; the escort carrier Kaiyo; heavy cruisers Tone and Aoba; as well as light cruisers Oyodo and Kitakami. In addition, another 53 vessels amounting to 17,000 tons were sunk at various locations, including Hiroshima Bay, Niihama, Bungo Channel, and Kii Channel. At Kobe, the incomplete fleet carrier Aso was also attacked and damaged. American Hellcats and Corsairs effectively swept aside Japanese aerial opposition, shooting down 18 enemy planes while destroying 40 aircraft and damaging another 80 on the ground. Furthermore, around the Inland Sea, 16 locomotives were destroyed and five were damaged, while 20 hangars sustained damage. Three oil tanks were set ablaze at Kure and one at Tano. Additionally, four electric trains and a roundhouse were strafed at Hamamatsu, and various military installations, including barracks, warehouses, power plants, and factories around the airfields, received significant damage. Simultaneously, Rear-Admiral Rawlings' Task Force 37 conducted 257 sorties against targets in Japan and the surrounding offshore areas, sinking the escort carrier Shimane Maru in Shido Bay, along with a number of destroyers, small escorts, and coasters. Meanwhile, Jones' light cruisers swept through the Kii Channel before bombarding the Kushimoto seaplane base and airfields at Cape Shionomisaki during the night. Supporting these efforts, General LeMay dispatched 625 B-29s against seven targets in the Nagoya and Osaka areas, successfully inflicting heavy damage on all of them despite the spotty weather, marking this as the last major attack on the Japanese mainland during the war, as two weeks of cloudy weather ensued. In the early hours of July 25, McCain's aircraft carriers resumed launching strikes against airfields and shipping in the Inland Sea and the Nagoya-Osaka areas. During this operation, they executed a total of 655 sorties, expending 185 tons of bombs and 1,162 rockets, successfully sinking nine ships totaling 8,000 tons and damaging another 35 vessels. The strikes also resulted in the downing of 21 Japanese planes, with an additional 61 aircraft destroyed on the ground and 68 damaged. After refueling on July 27, Halsey's carrier forces moved to launch points located 96 nautical miles off Shikoku. At 04:43 on July 28, they resumed strikes over the Inland Sea, focusing on targets from northern Kyushu to Nagoya, as well as airfields across Honshu along the Sea of Japan. This resulted in McCain flying a total of 1,602 sorties, dropping 605 tons of bombs and expending 2,050 rockets. These attacks sank 27 ships, amounting to 43,000 tons, including the battleships Ise and Haruna, the fleet carrier Amagi, and the Combined Fleet flagship Oyodo. Additionally, 78 vessels totaling 216,000 tons were reported damaged, among them the fleet carrier Katsuragi, heavy cruiser Tone, and light cruiser Kitakami. American pilots reported the destruction of 21 Japanese aircraft in the air and claimed 115 destroyed on the ground across 30 area airfields. They also successfully destroyed 14 locomotives, four oil cars, two roundhouses, three oil tanks, three warehouses, one hangar, and a transformer station. In support of these efforts, Task Force 37 conducted 260 sorties against the eastern Inland Sea, targeting the dockyard at Harima and sinking or severely damaging four corvettes at Maizuru. Meanwhile, the 7th Air Force's 11th and 494th Bombardment Groups carried out a day-long raid on Kure, successfully sinking the heavy cruiser Aoba. By sunset that evening, the Imperial Japanese Navy had effectively ceased to exist, though the cost for the Americans was steep, with losses amounting to 101 planes and 88 men since July 24. As Halsey moved east to target the Osaka-Nagoya area, Shafroth's reinforced Bombardment Group was detached on July 29 to bombard Hamamatsu. During the night, they successfully unloaded 810 16-inch shells, 265 14-inch shells, and 1,035 8-inch shells, damaging the Imperial Government Railway locomotive works, igniting a blaze at the Japanese Musical Instrument Company, and wreaking havoc on infrastructure along the critical Tokaido main line. The following day, McCain's carriers conducted 1,224 sorties against airfields in Osaka, Kobe, Maizuru, and Nagoya, expending 397 tons of bombs and 2,532 rockets. These strikes resulted in the sinking of 20 vessels totaling 6,000 tons and damaging another 56 ships. The pilots also claimed destruction of 115 enemy aircraft on the ground, while inflicting severe damage on numerous industrial targets, including aircraft factories and naval docks in Maizuru. In Miyazu Bay, the destroyer Hatsushino struck an air-dropped naval mine, marking the final loss of 129 Japanese destroyers sunk during the war. That night, seven destroyers advanced deep into Suruga Bay, unleashing 1,100 5-inch shells on Shimizu within seven minutes, successfully destroying or damaging 118 industrial buildings. Typhoon weather would impede the operations of the 3rd Fleet for the next two weeks, as Admiral Nimitz ordered Halsey to steer clear of southern Japan, which was set to become the target of a new and deadly weapon: the atomic bomb. The U.S. Army had begun its project to develop an atomic bomb on August 16, 1942, under the auspices of the Manhattan Project. The project was directed by Major-General Leslie Groves and involved renowned scientists such as Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr, Richard Feynman, and Albert Einstein. Over time, it expanded to include a design center at Los Alamos and two production facilities at Hanford and Clinton. By August 1945, the teams at Los Alamos had successfully designed, developed, and built a gun-type atomic bomb capable of forcing five pounds of uranium-235 against another 17 pounds at high speed, thereby achieving critical mass and releasing immense heat, light, blast, and radiation. The team was also experimenting with an even more powerful device: the plutonium bomb, which utilized an implosion method whereby a sphere of plutonium was compressed by conventional explosives to reach criticality. By early August, scientists had managed to produce enough nuclear material to create only one uranium device, known as Little Boy, and one plutonium bomb, referred to as Fat Man. Each weapon had the potential to annihilate an entire city, and American leaders were prepared to use them if it could compel the Japanese Empire to surrender without necessitating an invasion of Japan. A Targeting Committee led by Groves, consisting of Manhattan Project and Air Force personnel, recommended Hiroshima, Niigata, Kokura, and Nagasaki as primary targets. Groves' Targeting Committee employed several criteria to select sites for atomic bomb targets. The chosen targets had to possess strategic value to the Japanese and be situated between Tokyo and Nagasaki. Additionally, the target needed to feature a large urban area with a minimum diameter of three miles and must be relatively untouched by previous bombings, ironically spared for potential atomic destruction at a later stage. A crucial condition was that, to the best of their knowledge, these areas should harbor no concentrations of Allied prisoners of war. However, this requirement was challenging to ascertain accurately due to a lack of reliable information about the locations of prisoners. Initially, the committee considered 17 candidates and selected five primary targets: Hiroshima, Yokohama, Kokura, Niigata, and Kyoto. On May 28, they narrowed the list to three: Kyoto, Niigata, and Hiroshima. Hiroshima was significant as it housed Hata's 2nd General Army headquarters and featured a large shipyard, while Niigata was a major industrial city with an important port. Moreover, Kyoto held considerable cultural and religious significance for the Japanese. Secretary of War Stimson, having previously cautioned General Arnold about the humanitarian consequences of targeting cities with incendiary bombings, insisted on removing Kyoto from the list after intense discussions with Groves. On July 21, President Truman concurred with Stimson during their meetings in Potsdam, deciding that Kyoto should be spared. Subsequently, Kokura, known for its large arsenal and ordnance works, replaced Kyoto. Additionally, LeMay's staff reportedly included Nagasaki as an alternate target due to potential weather issues, as it was home to Mitsubishi's arms factories, electric production facilities, ordnance works, and extensive dockyards, making it a valuable target. Meanwhile, a high-level civilian Interim Committee, under Secretary of War Henry Stimson, ultimately advised President Truman on the use of nuclear weapons, reasoning that their deployment would be no worse than the current incendiary bombing campaigns against Japan. The committee also recommended that an atomic bomb be deployed as soon as possible, without warning, to maximize shock value and target a "war plant… surrounded by workers' houses." Following a successful operational test of the experimental plutonium bomb conducted at Trinity on July 16, President Truman authorized General Spaatz to prepare for the bomb drops before August 3. Colonel Paul Tibbets' 509th Composite Group had been specially organized in secret since September 1944 to deliver nuclear weapons, and by June, it had arrived at Tinian under the command of LeMay's 21st Bomber Command. General Twinning replaced LeMay as commander of the 21st on August 1, and he would ultimately issue the direct orders for Tibbets to drop the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb mission had a convoluted command structure. The Joint Chiefs of Staff were largely left out of the chain of command. LeMay was Tibbet's nominal commander; however, Groves still had extensive control over the operation through his deputy Brigadier General Thomas Farrell on Tinian. The 21st Bomber Command would determine when the atomic bomb mission was launched, based on suitable weather conditions. Even at this stage, General of the Air Force Henry "Hap" Arnold and LeMay were still skeptical about the Manhattan Project; they thought B-29 incendiary and high-explosive bombing operations would suffice to end the war soon. LeMay even questioned the 509th CG pilots' ability to conduct the mission; he wanted seasoned Pacific B-29 veteran crews to drop the nuclear cargo. While the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) prepared for an impending invasion, the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) continued its bombing campaign against Japan. The crews of the 509th Composite Group needed to acclimate to the navigational challenges, varied weather conditions, extensive distances, and the geography of the region, all while becoming accustomed to combat situations. Training commenced at Tinian on June 30, with conventional operational missions over Japan beginning on July 20. To prepare for their atomic missions, the crews trained with "pumpkins," which were specially constructed bombs designed to mimic the appearance and weight of nuclear weapons. This allowed them to practice handling and releasing the bombs. They also rehearsed navigational procedures, visual bomb release techniques, and dropping the weapon at an altitude of approximately 30,000 feet. Following the drop, the crew conducted high-speed, radical turns to evade the nuclear effects after detonation. During their first mission, a B-29 from the 509th sought an alternative target in Tokyo. The crew aimed to drop their 10,000-pound "pumpkin" on the Imperial Palace, but unfortunately, they missed their target. Had they succeeded in killing the emperor, it could have significantly impacted Japan's decision-making process, potentially fortifying the Japanese people's resolve to continue the war. Military leaders might have seized control in the aftermath, pushing their forces to keep fighting. Throughout their training, the units of the 21st Bomber Command intentionally avoided targeting Hiroshima, Niigata, Kokura, and Nagasaki during these practice runs. In total, Tibbets directed his crews on numerous combat missions that targeted 28 cities and involved the dropping of 49 "pumpkins." Remarkably, the 509th lost no aircraft during these operations. While Tibbets focused on perfecting the delivery method, the weapons Little Boy and Fat Man were being transported to Tinian. Some weapon assemblies were delivered by C-54 and B-29 aircraft from Kirtland Field near Albuquerque, while the cruiser Indianapolis delivered the fissionable material for Little Boy from San Francisco on July 26. Four days later, the submarine I-58 unexpectedly attacked the Indianapolis with six torpedoes while the cruiser was en route to Guam, successfully sinking it. Of the crew, 850 Americans survived the sinking, and another 316 were belatedly rescued by August 8. By July 31, most of the assembly of Little Boy had been completed. However, a detonation expert would need to emplace the cordite charges to fire the uranium "bullet" through the gun device to the uranium core after take-off, minimizing the risk of an inadvertent nuclear explosion in the event of a B-29 crash. Additionally, the crew carrying the atomic bomb had to exercise caution when descending once Little Boy was armed because the primary radar or a backup barometric fuse could potentially trigger an explosion if the aircraft descended too rapidly with the fuses in place. On August 2, B-29 crews arrived at Tinian with the assemblies for Fat Man. On that same day, General Twinning and President Truman approved the plan to bomb Hiroshima. Two days later, Colonel Tibbets briefed the crews about the mission, confirming that he would pilot the aircraft carrying the atomic bomb. Tibbets' B-29 No. 82, later named Enola Gay, was supported by three weather reconnaissance aircraft that reported conditions at Hiroshima, Kokura, and Nagasaki, as well as two additional B-29s assigned to conduct scientific and photographic missions. At 02:45 on August 6, Enola Gay took off from Tinian, with diversionary attacks by 604 B-29s throughout Japan also scheduled for that day, as coordinated by Twinning. After passing through Iwo Jima at approximately 05:55, Captain William Parsons and Second-Lieutenant Morris Jeppson armed the bomb at 07:30. Throughout the journey, the B-29s ascended slowly, reaching an altitude of over 30,000 feet as they crossed Shikoku and Honshu, finally reaching Hiroshima at 31,060 feet. At 09:12, Tibbets executed his final approach from the 'initial point', flying east-west over the city towards the intersection of the Ota and Motoyasu Rivers. Approximately at 09:15, Little Boy was released, and Enola Gay immediately began its turn away to escape the impending explosion. However, the bomb mistakenly descended towards the Shima Surgical Hospital rather than the intended target, the Aioi Bridge. At 09:16, Little Boy detonated at an altitude of 1,890 feet, just as Tibbets was about six miles away from the blast point. As a result of the atomic blast, the immediate area around the epicenter was heated to an astonishing 1 million degrees Celsius, instantly incinerating or vaporizing all people, animals, buildings, and other items within that zone. Hiroshima police officials estimated that immediate casualties amounted to 71,379 individuals who were either killed or reported missing. In the surrounding areas, the blast effects crushed unreinforced structures before igniting them, resulting in an additional 68,023 wounded, with 19,691 of those injuries classified as serious. Subsequent assessments, potentially incorporating the impacts of radiation sickness or more precise accounting, recorded 30,524 individuals as seriously wounded and 48,606 as slightly wounded. Just two minutes after detonation, a growing mushroom cloud of highly radioactive dust and debris soared to a height of 20,000 feet. Within eight minutes, Tibbets' crew could observe the mushroom cloud from 390 miles away. Ultimately, the dust cloud peaked at approximately 60,000 feet in altitude. Soon after, a thick, black, radioactive rain fell upon the areas beneath the cloud. The center of the city was utterly devastated; over four square miles of the urban center, which encompassed seven square miles in total, were completely flattened, resulting in about 60% of the city's area being destroyed. An additional 0.6 square miles suffered damage, while more than 75% of the city's 90,000 buildings were obliterated. The ensuing fires compounded the devastation, contributing to countless deaths and injuries. Tragically, some American prisoners of war were present in Hiroshima and lost their lives in the explosion. Meanwhile, Enola Gay safely returned to Tinian at 14:58, where Tibbets was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, while the rest of the crew received Distinguished Flying Crosses for their participation in the mission. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Japan was broken. To be perfectly honest she had been broken long ago. Her leadership had been spending months trying to figure out the best possible way to surrender, while the civilians and troops were suffering horribly. Aerial mining strangled her of food, high explosive and incendiary bombs, killed untold scores of people, and then the Atomic weapons were let loose upon her. It was over.
What does it take to make a living betting on politics? Can prediction markets offer insights about the future that other analyses cannot? To find out, ChinaTalk interviewed Domer, a professional prediction markets bettor. Domer is the number one trader by volume on Polymarket, and he's been trading since 2007. He initially entered this world through poker, but now makes bets about who will win foreign elections, whether wars will start, and whether bills will become law. We discuss… Why some issues — like Romanian elections, the NYC mayoral race, or Zelenskyy's outfit choices — can attract hundreds of millions of dollars in trading volume, Systematic biases in prediction markets, including why they overestimate the likelihood of a Taiwan contingency, What happens to prediction markets in the absence of insider trading regulations, Why prediction markets are still a solo endeavor, and what a profit-maximizing team of traders would look like, Bonus: How betting markets backfired on Romanian nationalists, what AI can teach you about betting, and other insights on winning from one of Domer's contemporaries. Outro music: Bob Dylan - Rambling, Gambling Willie (YouTube Link) This episode is brought to you by ElevenLabs. I've been on the hunt for years for the perfect reader app that puts AI audio at the center of its design. Over the past few months, the ElevenReader app has earned a spot on my iPhone's home screen and now gets about 30 minutes of use every day. I plow through articles using Eleven Reader's beautiful voices and love having Richard Feynman read me AI news stories — as well as, you know, Matilda every once in a while, too. I'm also a power user of its bookmark feature, which the ElevenReader team added after I requested it on Twitter. ChinaTalk's newsletter content even comes preloaded in the feed. Check out the ElevenReader app if you're looking for the best mobile reader on the market. Oh, and by the way — if you ever need to transcribe anything, ElevenLabs' Scribe model has transformed our workflow for getting transcripts out to you on the newsletter. It's crossed the threshold from “95% good” to “99.5% amazing,” saving our production team hours every week. Check it out the next time you need something transcribed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Richard Gearhart and Elizabeth Gearhart, co-hosts of Passage to Profit Show interview Arthur Kappor from Elligint Health, James Barrood from Innovation+ and Sherri Dindal from Wholesome Hippy. Arthur Kapoor, board member of Elligint Health built a healthcare tech empire with zero industry experience—just bold instincts and a bias for action. In this episode, he shares how disruption, risk, and outsider thinking helped him outpace industry giants and turn chaos into opportunity. Read more at: https://elliginthealth.com/ Founder of Innovation+ James Barrood has spent 25+ years shaping the East Coast's innovation and startup landscape—leading tech councils, advising founders, and building global communities of changemakers. Tune in as he shares insights at the intersection of entrepreneurship, technology, and the future of innovation. Read more at: https://innovationplus.us Sherri Dindal is the co-founder of viral skincare brand Wholesome Hippy and a comedian with over 5 million followers—blending laughs, natural wellness, and holistic self-care like no one else. From handmade, cruelty-free skincare to TikToks that reach millions, she's redefining beauty from the inside out. Read more at: https://wholesomehippy.com/ Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur, a startup, an inventor, an innovator, a small business or just starting your entrepreneurial journey, tune into Passage to Profit Show for compelling discussions, real-life examples, and expert advice on entrepreneurship, intellectual property, trademarks and more. Visit https://passagetoprofitshow.com/ for the latest updates and episodes. Chapters (00:00:00) - Passing to Profit(00:00:28) - Passage to Profit(00:01:41) - How to Handle a New Business Idea?(00:03:33) - Arthur Kapoor on Taking a Risk(00:07:37) - Are Any Industries Very Chaotic?(00:08:08) - What Made You Turned to Entrepreneurism?(00:09:18) - How Do You Integrate Innovation in Healthcare?(00:13:13) - What Types of Changes Would You Make to Healthcare?(00:16:19) - Commercial(00:17:20) - The Cruise Call(00:18:18) - Passage to Profit(00:20:40) - In the Elevator With Entrepreneurs(00:22:44) - Richard Feist on the Challenges of Being an Entrepreneur(00:24:34) - In the Elevator With Arthur Blank(00:26:03) - Lululemon Sues Costco for Patent Infringement(00:28:43) - Costco's Fight Against Lululemon Knockoffs(00:33:44) - Designers Get Copyright Protection for Their Designs(00:34:42) - Patents and Trademarks(00:35:14) - Medguard CareWatch(00:38:02) - Post-Podcast: Content Studio(00:40:17) - Medical Minute: Flushing Your Nose With Water(00:41:01) - Sherry Dindall on Being Funny and Her Skincare(00:42:12) - Wholesome Hippie: What Social Media Platform Works Best For(00:45:34) - The Comedian on Starting a Business(00:48:10) - Gen X Takeover: The Comedy(00:51:30) - Jim Barood on AI and Entrepreneurs(00:52:14) - How to get Viral on Social Media(00:53:25) - Live Selling: The Future of AI(00:54:55) - On The Future of AIs(00:59:30) - Richard Feynman on AI Agents(01:04:18) - Jim Barood on His Events(01:05:09) - Personal Injury Lawyers(01:06:25) - 7 Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind(01:07:43) - Sherry Dindal(01:08:13) - James Barood on Authenticity and Brand in the World of AI(01:09:07) - Copyright & Promotion: Working Even When You're Sore
"Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all."~ RICHARD P. FEYNMANFor more podcasts and videos on motivation and unstoppable momentum, visit: http://futurestrong.org/podcastshttp://futurestrong.org/videosTo build a whole child: https://futurestrong.org/2022/05/06/essential-real-life-skills-to-start-teaching-your-child-at-any-age-video/Learn more about our Digital Lives And Detox HERE: https://futurestrong.org/project/truth-about-tech/For content copyright and disclaimer, please visit: https://futurestrong.org/copyright/#FutureSTRONGAcademy #RNS #OurFutureSTRONG
On May 7, 1981, influential physicist Richard Feynman gave a keynote speech at Caltech. Feynman opened his talk by politely rejecting the very notion of a keynote speech, instead saying that he had his own ideas on what to discuss and that everyone should speak on what they please. And for Feynman, this meant proposing a new technology that could simulate physics with computers. That lecture 44 years ago is widely considered to have kicked off the field of quantum computing. In today's episode we dive into the world of quantum computing — its big challenges and exciting potential applications such as decoding tough-to-crack encrypted messages or discovering new drugs. Send us your science facts, news, or other stories for a chance to be featured on an upcoming Tiny Show and Tell Us bonus episode. And, while you're at it, subscribe to our newsletter!Links to the Tiny Show and Tell stories are here and here. All Tiny Matters transcripts and references are available here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Un pedazo de Marte en venta: El meteorito marciano más grande en la Tierra se vendió por 5,3 millones de dólares en Nueva York Por Félix Riaño @LocutorCoUn fragmento gigante del planeta rojo cambió de dueño en una subasta que mezcló ciencia y mucho dinero. En una subasta real que ocurrió esta semana en Nueva York, un meteorito auténtico que vino de Marte fue vendido por más de cinco coma tres millones de dólares, incluyendo comisiones. La roca, conocida como NWA 16788, pesa veinticuatro coma cinco kilogramos y mide casi cuarenta centímetros de largo. Su tamaño es tan extraordinario que supera en un setenta por ciento al segundo meteorito marciano más grande hallado hasta ahora en la Tierra. La subasta fue lenta al principio, pero al final un comprador anónimo se lo llevó. No es ciencia ficción: es una historia completamente real, verificada por la casa Sotheby's y publicada por medios como CNN, Space.com y la BBC. Este meteorito representa casi el siete por ciento de todo el material marciano identificado en nuestro planeta.¿Y si este meteorito terminara escondido en una bóveda privada? La historia de esta roca es de otro mundo, literalmente. Se formó con lava marciana que se enfrió muy despacio y quedó atrapada en una roca con minerales como olivino y piroxeno. Luego, un asteroide la golpeó tan fuerte que la lanzó desde Marte hasta acá. Después de viajar doscientos veinticinco millones de kilómetros, cayó en el desierto del Sahara, en Níger, en noviembre de dos mil veintitrés. Al llegar a la Tierra, se quemó al entrar en la atmósfera y por eso su superficie tiene una capa brillante como de vidrio. Solo hay unos cuatrocientos meteoritos marcianos reconocidos en todo el mundo, y la mayoría son como fichas, pequeñitos. Este no: este es un bloque gigante que pesa como un niño de siete años. Y aquí es donde empieza el dilema. Mucha gente piensa que rocas como esta deberían estar en museos, al alcance del público y de los científicos, no en colecciones privadas que nadie puede ver. Pero otros dicen que, si nadie les pone precio, nadie se animaría a buscar meteoritos en el desierto ni a conservarlos. Además, muchas veces los compradores terminan donándolos o prestándolos a museos, y hasta ayudan a pagar el personal que los cuida. En este caso, por lo menos un pedacito fue guardado por el Observatorio de la Montaña Púrpura en China, donde los científicos podrán seguir analizándolo. Así que, aunque no sepamos quién lo compró, lo más probable es que ese pedazo de Marte siga contando su historia. ¿Y ahora qué? Bueno, nadie sabe todavía dónde va a terminar esta roca. El comprador se mantiene en secreto, como si fuera Bruce Wayne. Pero si la presta o la dona, puede inspirar a niños, científicos y curiosos en todo el mundo. Lo que sí sabemos es que fue parte de un evento llamado “Geek Week” de Sotheby's, donde también vendieron un esqueleto de Ceratosaurio juvenil por más de treinta millones de dólares, y otras piezas alucinantes como un pie fosilizado de T-Rex, un diente de Megalodón, herramientas de neandertales y una joya de aguamarina. El meteorito, con su color rojizo y su historia espacial, fue la estrella. Y aunque costó lo suyo, también dejó una pregunta flotando: ¿cuánto estarías dispuesto a pagar por tener un pedazo del planeta rojo? Ese día, la subasta fue como una feria de ciencia para millonarios. El pie del T-Rex se vendió por uno coma cuatro millones de dólares, el diente de Megalodón por dieciocho mil, las herramientas neandertales por cuarenta y cinco mil y una aguamarina azul por setenta y cinco mil. Sotheby's defiende estos precios diciendo que ayudan a cuidar las piezas mejor que algunos museos sin presupuesto. Ya antes habían vendido la colección de Buzz Aldrin en ocho millones, el Nobel de Richard Feynman en cuatro millones y un esqueleto de Stegosaurio en cuarenta y cuatro millones. Para ellos, cada objeto vendido es una oportunidad de conservar y seguir investigando. Pero la discusión sigue: ¿la ciencia se subasta o se comparte? Un trozo gigante de Marte fue vendido por millones, pero aún no sabemos si acabará en vitrina o en bóveda. ¿Qué harías tú con él? Déjamelo en los comentarios y no olvides seguir Flash Diario en Spotify. Un meteorito marciano gigante se vendió por €4,8 millones. Ciencia, misterio y cultura pop se cruzaron en Nueva York.BibliografíaSpace.comThe GuardianCNNBBC¿Te gustaría que ahora adaptemos este guion a video vertical para Instagram o TikTok?Conviértete en un seguidor de este podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/flash-diario-de-el-siglo-21-es-hoy--5835407/support.
fWotD Episode 2994: Trinity (nuclear test) Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Wednesday, 16 July 2025, is Trinity (nuclear test).Trinity was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. MWT (11:29:21 GMT) on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was of an implosion-design plutonium bomb, or "gadget", of the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. Concerns about whether the complex Fat Man design would work led to a decision to conduct the first nuclear test. The code name "Trinity" was assigned by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, possibly inspired by the poetry of John Donne.The test, both planned and directed by Kenneth Bainbridge, was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what was the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range (renamed the White Sands Proving Ground just before the test). The only structures originally in the immediate vicinity were the McDonald Ranch House and its ancillary buildings, which scientists used as a laboratory for testing bomb components. Fears of a fizzle prompted construction of "Jumbo", a steel containment vessel that could contain the plutonium, allowing it to be recovered; but ultimately Jumbo was not used in the test. On May 7, 1945, a rehearsal was conducted, during which 108 short tons (98 t) of high explosive spiked with radioactive isotopes was detonated.Some 425 people were present on the weekend of the Trinity test. In addition to Bainbridge and Oppenheimer, observers included Vannevar Bush, James Chadwick, James B. Conant, Thomas Farrell, Enrico Fermi, Hans Bethe, Richard Feynman, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Leslie Groves, Frank Oppenheimer, Geoffrey Taylor, Richard Tolman, Edward Teller, and John von Neumann. The Trinity bomb released the explosive energy of 25 kilotons of TNT (100 TJ) ± 2 kilotons of TNT (8.4 TJ), and a large cloud of fallout. Thousands of people lived closer to the test than would have been allowed under guidelines adopted for subsequent tests, but no one living near the test was evacuated before or afterward.The test site was declared a National Historic Landmark district in 1965 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places the following year.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:34 UTC on Wednesday, 16 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Trinity (nuclear test) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Ruth.
In an effort to reinvigorate interest in the Space program, NASA launched the "Teacher in Space" program, in 1984. The beautiful, brilliant and charismatic high school social studies teacher, Christa McAuliffe, was selected out of 11,000 applicants and the country fell in love with the teacher and the space program once again. Tragically, a well-documented problem with the O-rings on the shuttle's solid rocket booster was compromised during the low temperature launch and one of NASA's biggest tragedies occurred, resulting in the deaths of all seven astronauts on board. In today's episode we discuss little known facts about the disaster and ask the question, what is the cost of advancement? Sources: How legendary physicist Richard Feynman helped crack the case on the Challenger disaster. (2021, June 9). Literary Hub. https://lithub.com/how-legendary-physicist-richard-feynman-helped-crack-the-case-on-the-challenger-disaster/ Pruitt, S. (2025, May 28). 5 things you may not know about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster | HISTORY. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/articles/5-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-challenger-shuttle-disaster The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2009, January 14). Challenger disaster | Summary, Date, Cause, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Challenger-disaster The Challenger: The Final Flight. (2018). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12930534/fullcredits/ Join The Dark Oak Discussion: Patreon The Dark Oak Podcast Website Facebook Instagram Twitter TikTok Youtube This episode of The Dark Oak was created, researched, written, recorded, hosted, edited, published, and marketed by Cynthia and Stefanie of Just Us Gals Productions with artwork by Justyse Himes and Music by Ryan Creep
Episode: 3318 Vera C. Rubin: The astronomer who brought dark matter to light. Today, meet Vera Rubin.
What if knowing less could actually make you more? In this riveting conversation, Ben Owden sits down with Dr. Stuart Firestein, former Chair of Columbia University's Biological Sciences, neuroscientist extraordinaire, and author of Ignorance: How It Drives Science and Failure: Why Science Is Successful. Far from being gloomy topics, Stuart shows us how ignorance and failure are the secret engines of creativity and innovation, both in the lab and in life.In This Episode, We Explore:Why “Not Knowing” Is Your Greatest Superpower – Stuart argues that curiosity lives between what we know and what we don't. Learn how “negative capability” (a willingness to tolerate uncertainty) is the birthplace of every major discovery.How Failure Uncovers Hidden Possibilities – From Marie Curie to Richard Feynman, see why a “failed experiment” can be more valuable than hitting a bull's-eye. (Hint: Nature's top predators in nature only succeed 25% of the time!)The Art of Asking Better Questions – Forget “hypothesis‐driven” experiments: discover why wandering in the dark sometimes, not just under the lamp post, is where the real magic happens.Living with Revision — Why “Total Truth” Doesn't Exist – What Newton, Einstein, and Keats taught Stuart about refining knowledge instead of clinging to “one final answer.”Practical Tips for Embracing Ignorance & Failure Today – From “failing better” to scheduling a daily “dark-room” hour, Stuart shares concrete ways to rewire your mindset—whether you're a scientist, a middle manager, or just someone who wants to do more creative work.Get a copy of Failure: Why Science Is So SuccessfulImportant Links*Join Thrive in the Middle Today!*Book WhyLead to Train Your Teams*Explore Our ServicesSocial Media*Ben Owden's LinkedIn*Ben Owden's Twitter
Richard Feynman once dubbed turbulence “the last unsolved problem of classical physics.” Beyond the Navier–Stokes equations, no comprehensive statistical framework exists to predict how fluids spin, eddy, and cascade energy—whether in galactic jets, ocean currents, or the swirl of your morning coffee. But that might all be changing. In this episode, I sit down with theoretical physicist Sasha Migdal, who emerged from retirement with a bold, loop‑equation approach to turbulence. His formalism recasts the Navier–Stokes equations as an infinite number of linear, readily solvable equations that track circulation around closed loops in the fluid—offering, for the first time, a tractable statistical framework for chaotic flow. We chart Sasha's remarkable journey: from a promising career at the Landau Institute and Russian Space Institutes, where he resisted KGB pressure to compromise his work, to his defection to the United States in the late 1980s. We discuss his time outside of physics, and then delve into his return, and his novel approach to solving Navier–Stokes. Since we recorded, his theory has advanced rapidly. A rigorous proof now shows that it is the solution to the Navier–Stokes (NS) loop equation. The theory has also been extended to magnetohydrodynamics and turbulent mixing. Recent large-scale direct numerical simulations (DNS) match the theoretical predictions with even greater accuracy. ►Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/BNORi7mxxzg ►Find out more about Sasha's work here: https://alexandermigdal.com/ https://sashamigdal.github.io/TurbulenceDuality/index.html ►For a more technical overview of Sasha's work you can check out his recent talk at the IAS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgvGA6q7oPY
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Věda je hodně podobná sexu. Někdy z ní vzejde něco užitečného, ale to není jediný důvod, proč se jí věnujeme. To říkal americký vědec Richard Feynman, kterého mnozí řadí mezi deset největších fyziků všech dob. Syn uprchlíka z běloruského Minsku, se narodil v New Yorku 11. května 1918. V roce 1965 získal Nobelovu cenu za rozvoj kvantové elektrodynamiky. Měl velmi daleko k nudnému profesorovi v bílém plášti, který tráví většinu času zavřený v laboratoři.
A little about the very little We start a look at nanotechnology, which is the making and use of the very tiny. Join us on patreon.com/thelabwithbrad for extra special extra stuff! Here's a link to a talk by Richard Feynman, not the original, but a follow up many years later. Richard Feynman "Tiny Machines" Nanotechnology Lecture - aka "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom"
17 powerful sentences by Richard Feynman reflecting his approach to science, education, life and more: https://www.instagram.com/p/DI34knVx_Tv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Who Is Satan in Islam? | Iblis Explained https://youtu.be/6y8mFSQO6cI?si=ntR7OMFrSQik_Sda Perplexity e a fake news sobre a China https://www.perplexity.ai/search/is-this-information-legit-http-nKE42PC3RX6bvYDNsCRyyA Theodicy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodicy What is Zen Buddhism? https://youtu.be/NZBDW8l4wIU?si=PxuwdENPRVY_IplE The Golden Age of Japan: Lady Murasaki and the Shining Prince (Part 1) https://pca.st/ebtivu0h ... Read more The post mais histórias do Japão, como envelhecer bem, como explicar o Mal? raça é uma mentira! appeared first on radinho de pilha.
Esta semana reflexionamos sobre la ciencia y la amistad. Para ello, Santi García Cremades nos habla de varios resultados matemáticos relacionados con las relaciones humanas: primero, que la humanidad está tan conectada que sólo cinco personas nos separan de cualquier otro ser humano de la Tierra; después, qué nos dicen las matemáticas sobre la estructura interna de los grupos de amigos; y finalmente, un estudio psicológico que sugiere que hay un límite máximo al número de amigos que podemos tener. En la segunda parte Alberto Aparici habla de una amistad heterodoxa entre dos personas muy heterodoxas: Richard Feynman y Jirayr Zorthián. Feynman es uno de los físicos teóricos más célebres del siglo XX, en parte por cómo convertía la física en una experiencia lúdica; Zorthián es un pintor y escultor idiosincráticamente bohemio conocido por sus murales monumentales. Ambos se conocieron en los ambientes intelectuales de la California de finales de la década de 1950, y ahí empezó una continua conversación sobre la belleza, el arte y si la ciencia podía aportar cosas a la experiencia artística. Feynman defendía que la ciencia es una puerta de entrada para encontrar belleza en lugares donde normalmente no la veríamos, y en el programa de hoy intentamos aplicar esas ideas a un sistema físico muy concreto: una nube solitaria en un cielo de verano. Si os apetece saber más sobre Richard Feynman, además de ese futuro programa que hemos prometido sobre su interpretación de la mecánica cuántica, podéis encontrar más material en nuestro pódcast hermano, La Brújula de la Ciencia. Buscad los capítulos s02e17, s07e37 y s04e30. Este programa se emitió originalmente el 10 de abril de 2025. Podéis escuchar el resto de audios de Más de Uno en la app de Onda Cero y en su web, ondacero.es
Today, the Spotlight shines On digital media artist Tamiko Thiel.To mark our special milestone of 250 episodes, we are kicking off a two-part conversation with media artist Tamiko Thiel.Tamiko has lived at the crossroads of art and technology for over 40 years. She designed the Connection Machine, the first commercial AI supercomputer that now sits in New York's Museum of Modern Art. She's worked with everyone from Steven Spielberg to Richard Feynman, and pioneered virtual reality art before most people had heard of VR. Her Connection Machine even inspired Steve Jobs when he built his post-Apple computer, the NeXTcube.In part one, Tamiko shares her journey from Stanford engineer to acclaimed artist, and how her Japanese-American roots shape her work exploring identity, place, and space. Part two drops next week.–Dig DeeperVisit Tamiko Thiel at tamikothiel.comFollow Tamiko Thiel on Bluesky, Instagram, and LinkedInDanny Hillis, Richard Feynman, Tamiko Thiel & Colleagues Design the Connection MachineThe Female Supercomputer Designer Who Inspired Steve JobsCM-1/CM-2 "Feynman" T-shirtsDig into this episode's complete show notes at spotlightonpodcast.com–• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice.• Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.• Be sure to bookmark our new online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today, the Spotlight shines On digital media artist Tamiko Thiel.To mark our special milestone of 250 episodes, we are kicking off a two-part conversation with media artist Tamiko Thiel.Tamiko has lived at the crossroads of art and technology for over 40 years. She designed the Connection Machine, the first commercial AI supercomputer that now sits in New York's Museum of Modern Art. She's worked with everyone from Steven Spielberg to Richard Feynman, and pioneered virtual reality art before most people had heard of VR. Her Connection Machine even inspired Steve Jobs when he built his post-Apple computer, the NeXTcube.In part one, Tamiko shares her journey from Stanford engineer to acclaimed artist, and how her Japanese-American roots shape her work exploring identity, place, and space. Part two drops next week.–Dig DeeperVisit Tamiko Thiel at tamikothiel.comFollow Tamiko Thiel on Bluesky, Instagram, and LinkedInDanny Hillis, Richard Feynman, Tamiko Thiel & Colleagues Design the Connection MachineThe Female Supercomputer Designer Who Inspired Steve JobsCM-1/CM-2 "Feynman" T-shirtsDig into this episode's complete show notes at spotlightonpodcast.com–• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice.• Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.• Be sure to bookmark our new online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This Easter on The Lisa Burke Show, neuroscientist and newly baptised Christian Baroness Susan Greenfield reflects on a life of scientific discovery, spiritual awakening, and the enduring quest to understand consciousness. In this exclusive for The Lisa Burke Show, we welcome one of the most visionary minds of our time—a scientist, entrepreneur, author, and House of Lords peer who has dedicated her life to researching the brain and consciousness, and now journeys inward toward faith. This Easter Sunday, as the season of renewal and rebirth arrives, it is a profound privilege to share with you a conversation that speaks to the mind and the soul, with a science icon of mine. For the first time, newly baptised Baroness Susan Greenfield will mark this Easter as a Christian. Classics to Pharmacology Baroness Susan Greenfield began her intellectual life immersed in Ancient Greek and Latin thanks to an inspirational teacher, and it was there that the seeds of her fierce curiosity took root. For Susan, the Classics developed a rigorously disciplined way of thinking: a mental gymnasium that trained her to ask the deepest questions of what it means to be human. “The Romans and Greeks dealt with love, fate, identity - questions we still grapple with. We've advanced technologically, but philosophically? Not much.” This foundation in classics led her, perhaps surprisingly, into science. Encouraged by a bold Oxford pharmacologist who told her she could “tell us about Homer during the coffee break,” despite not knowing the basics of chemistry, Susan entered neuroscience. Since then, she has gone on to lead research groups at Oxford and founded the biotech company Neuro-Bio Ltd, devoted to early-stage diagnostics and interventions for Alzheimer's disease. Susan is also affiliated with the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, where she confronts one of our century's greatest challenges: how to extend our health span, alongside lifespan. Alzheimer's, Cognitive Capital & Consciousness The Alzheimer's research Susan leads is revolutionary. She and her team have devoted over 40 years to identifying molecules that could stop neuronal death potentially before symptoms even begin. With a latency window of 10 to 20 years between brain degeneration and visible symptoms, Susan envisions a three-step screening model, starting at home, to catch the disease early enough for real prevention. Yet she is just as passionate about prevention through lifestyle. Cognitive capital may well be the new GDP. A daily life filled with rich conversation, curiosity and mental stimulation is just as vital to our brains as sleep or diet. “The brain should be part of the school curriculum,” Susan insists. “Ten-year-olds can grasp it. It's their brain, their identity. Why should they wait until university?” Susan's take on consciousness brings us to a realm we haven't quite been able to grasp yet in words or measurement. “It's subjective, immeasurable… and that makes it terrifying for many scientists.” She distinguishes between the brain, the mind and consciousness. And then there is the soul. Faith and the Soul “I think the riddle of consciousness is somehow tied up with what we call the soul,” she muses, a space she now embraces more openly. Raised in a home divided between Jewish and Christian grandparents, married to a self-proclaimed atheist, Susan has now found faith in her own way. “I feel a deeper sensitivity to faith now,” she confides. “I believe in God more than I used to.” Her faith journey culminated in a quiet baptism last year. “This Easter,” she says, “feels like my first.” For a neuroscientist whose every instinct is to explore and analyse, this act of surrender is to someone bigger than oneself. It doesn't conflict with her science; it deepens it. “Consciousness may vary in degrees,” she says, “like sleep or anaesthesia. So why not faith?” Female leadership A scientist style icon, Susan has always been unapologetically herself. “I cultivated my look as a kind of armour,” she explains, “but it also reflects who I am—curious, expressive, unwilling to conform.” Now as a CEO, Susan calls on all of us, especially women, to invest, support, and mentor. Indeed, only 2% of venture capital still goes to women. “Leadership,” she says, “is about vision, not control. It's about showing what's possible.” She embodies this truth in every aspect of her life—from the lab to the Lords. Legacy is in addressing the big questions In reflecting on her legacy, Susan doesn't cite awards. She returns, instead, to the passion of discovery. “Just doing the science is the reward,” she says, echoing physicist Richard Feynman. And to young people unsure of their path, she offers the same wisdom that has shaped her own life: don't be afraid to ask the big questions. “It's better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.” Happy Easter in whatever way you plan to spend the weekend. To follow more from Susan Greenfield:
How does Adam see himself, his life and his role as an inventor, artist and educator? Adam reflects on his unique career path, work/life balance, what to do when feeling overwhelmed, investing in your own world-building, how meditating on the origins of things connects him to creators of the past, the miracle of sentience and zombie Richard Feynman. https://youtu.be/wg5laIYBkcA
Tune in to hear:What is the status quo bias and why might it have been relevant to the Challenger space shuttle explosion?Why did Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winning physicist, state that “the first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool?” How is running from freedom, via conscientiousness, an embodiment of Feynman's sentiment?What did Alfred Adler, Austrian Psychotherapist, say about our safeguarding tendencies and the harm they can do?How can safeguarding tendencies morph into inferiority complexes?How do we sometimes posit cowardice as moral uprightness in our lives?LinksThe Soul of WealthConnect with UsMeet Dr. Daniel CrosbyCheck Out All of Orion's PodcastsPower Your Growth with OrionCompliance Code: 0992-U-25094
Nuestros científicos, Santi García Cremades y Alberto Aparici, hoy nos explican tres ideas matemáticas sobre la amistad como: el mundo es un pañuelo; el teorema de la amistad y como las matemáticas determinan el “grupo de amigos” perfecto ; y la teoría de los 5 amigos. Además, nosotros también hablaremos de dos amigos muy concretos: el artista, pintor y escultor Jirayr Zorthian y del físico Richard Feynman.
Visit our website BeautifulIllusions.org for a complete set of show notes and links to almost everything discussed in this episodeSelected References:3:00 - Emerson: The Mind on Fire by Robert D. Richardson7:32 - Listen to Mindscape Episode 300 - Solo: Does Time Exist? from January, 20257:36 - From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time by Sean Carroll7:38 - The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli12:58 - Read Nature and Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson20:28 - “Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years” is an idea popularized most recently by Bill Gates and sometimes referred to as Gates' Law.21:42 - Derek Jeter played in 20 major league seasons starting in 1995 and retiring after the 2014 seasonListen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 37 - Memento Mori from February, 202526:05 - Rickey Henderson played in 25 major league seasons from 1979 to 2003. He passed away on December 20, 2004 and is remembered as one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived. See “Rickey Henderson, 'greatest of all time,' dies at 65” (ESPN.com)29:34 - Read “The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going To Miss Almost Everything” by Linda Holmes (NPR, 2011)31:10 - See the “Great American Novel” Wikipedia entry32:51 - Listen to the “Songs About Time” Spotify playlist36:05 - See “What Is Memento Mori?” (Daily Stoic)38:45 - The 2006 Adam Sandler movie Click is about “a workaholic architect [who] finds a universal remote that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices.”40:40 - See “Eternal Recurrence: What Did Nietzsche Really Mean?” (Philosophy Break) and “The Eternal Return: Nietzsche's Brilliant Thought Experiment Illustrating the Key to Existential Contentment” from The Marginalian46:14 - Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution by Carlo Rovelli56:22 - Listen to Richard Feynman's “Ode To A Flower” (YouTube)57:03 - See the “Deep time” Wikipedia entry and the Deep Time: A History of the Earth interactive infographicThis episode was recorded in February 2025The “Beautiful Illusions Theme” was performed by Darron Vigliotti (guitar) and Joseph Vigliotti (drums), and was written and recorded by Darron Vigliotti
Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim's seventh appearance on the show. He last appeared on episode 237 for a masterclass on Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. In this episode Tim returns for a discussion of another of Einstein's major impacts on physics: his theory of general relativity. More particularly, Tim and Robinson discuss black holes, time, paradoxes of distance, Penrose diagrams, figures like Leonard Susskind and Richard Feynman, the curvature of space, and more. If you're interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute's life.Tim's Website: www.tim-maudlin.siteThe John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org00:00:42 An Extended Prelude00:05:08 Naming Names00:10:02 The Difference Between Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity00:13:46 Einstein on General Relativity and Metric00:27:21 More on Coordinates00:40:26 A Novel Coordinate System00:46:25 What Is Special Relativity?00:50:30 The Conflict Between Quantum Theory and Relativity01:02:00 Doing Physics with Geometry01:12:38 Geometry and Special Relativity01:30:20 More on Geometry and Relativity01:36:19 Lorentz Frames01:46:56 Simultaneity02:02:03 John Bell and Special Relativity02:11:00 Paradoxes of Distance02:22:12 A Penrose Diagram02:27:47 Introducing General Relativity02:32:23 The Most Important Experiment About Gravity 02:45:52 Changing the Geometry of Spacetime02:55:28 Curvature of Space03:02:03 Be Careful with Diagrams in Science 03:05:45 The Basic Idea of General Relativity03:10:23 The Equivalence Principle03:19:40 Clocks and Gravity03:28:09 Richard Feynman on General Relativity03:37:00 The Cosmological Constant03:41:56 What Are Black Holes?03:50:45 What Steven Weinberg Got Wrong About General Relativity 04:01:01 Black Holes and the Centrifugal Force Paradox04:06:32 Curved Black Holes and Gödel Spacetime04:19:34 The John Bell InstituteRobinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.comRobinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.
On the latest episode of the podcast, we talk about freeing up time for creative thinking thanks to speeding up and automating processes with AI. Our guest Anuj Adhiya, Expert-in-Residence for Growth at Techstars, shares what he's learnt from Dr Richard Feynman's autobiography, why he advises marketers to focus on decisions and hypotheses first, and how he thinks AI growth ops can help brands grow faster and more efficiently.
In episode 448, host Bradley Hartmann discusses the importance of having robust, reliable processes that can withstand economic cycles. Using legendary physician Richard Feynman's "cargo cult" story as an analogy, this episode emphasizes the need to challenge assumptions and understand the true drivers of success, rather than relying on tribal wisdom. Key takeaways include: 1) Develop a "process stack" that defines the critical steps, activities, skills, and tools for key processes like sales 2) Align processes with company values 3) Maintain humility and discipline to adapt processes as market conditions change The process stack template is available as a resource for listeners who subscribe to The Construction Leadership Newsletter. This episode is brought to you by The Simple Sales Pipeline® —the most efficient way to organize and value any construction sales rep's roster of customers and prospects in under 30 minutes once every 30 days. *** If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your feedback will help us on our mission to bring the construction community closer together. If you have suggestions for improvements, topics you'd like the show to explore, or have recommendations for future guests, do not hesitate to contact us directly at info@bradleyhartmannandco.com.
Interview with the founders of Bee.computer Would Paris or Jeff get a Bee? Scarlett Johansson Urges Government to Limit A.I. After Faked Video of Her Opposing Kanye West Goes Viral Microsoft announces quantum computing breakthrough with new Majorana 1 chip A 'Teleportation' Breakthrough for Quantum Computing Is Here Google's AI Efforts Marred by Turf Disputes Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, releases its latest flagship model, Grok 3 Marcus: Elon Musk's terrifying vision for AI Richard Feynman: Can Machines Think? The Humane AI Pin: A $700 Brick of E-Waste AI Notetakers In Meetings Are Making Me Queasy - Bloomberg AI Designs Plastic-Digesting Enzyme Nikola, Electric Truck Maker, Files for Bankruptcy Google Lens powering new 'Screen Search' in Chrome for iOS Extra Finger ring On Probabilism and Determinism in AI My Life in Weeks by Gina Trapani A delightful look into the Murdochs' Succession Drama James Murdoch interview Roasted Chicken Thighs With Hot Honey and Lime Leobait: Thermomix cult Australian lamb video with comments section Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guests: Ethan Sutin and Maria de Lourdes Zollo Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: zscaler.com/security
Interview with the founders of Bee.computer Would Paris or Jeff get a Bee? Scarlett Johansson Urges Government to Limit A.I. After Faked Video of Her Opposing Kanye West Goes Viral Microsoft announces quantum computing breakthrough with new Majorana 1 chip A 'Teleportation' Breakthrough for Quantum Computing Is Here Google's AI Efforts Marred by Turf Disputes Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, releases its latest flagship model, Grok 3 Marcus: Elon Musk's terrifying vision for AI Richard Feynman: Can Machines Think? The Humane AI Pin: A $700 Brick of E-Waste AI Notetakers In Meetings Are Making Me Queasy - Bloomberg AI Designs Plastic-Digesting Enzyme Nikola, Electric Truck Maker, Files for Bankruptcy Google Lens powering new 'Screen Search' in Chrome for iOS Extra Finger ring On Probabilism and Determinism in AI My Life in Weeks by Gina Trapani A delightful look into the Murdochs' Succession Drama James Murdoch interview Roasted Chicken Thighs With Hot Honey and Lime Leobait: Thermomix cult Australian lamb video with comments section Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guests: Ethan Sutin and Maria de Lourdes Zollo Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: zscaler.com/security
Interview with the founders of Bee.computer Would Paris or Jeff get a Bee? Scarlett Johansson Urges Government to Limit A.I. After Faked Video of Her Opposing Kanye West Goes Viral Microsoft announces quantum computing breakthrough with new Majorana 1 chip A 'Teleportation' Breakthrough for Quantum Computing Is Here Google's AI Efforts Marred by Turf Disputes Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, releases its latest flagship model, Grok 3 Marcus: Elon Musk's terrifying vision for AI Richard Feynman: Can Machines Think? The Humane AI Pin: A $700 Brick of E-Waste AI Notetakers In Meetings Are Making Me Queasy - Bloomberg AI Designs Plastic-Digesting Enzyme Nikola, Electric Truck Maker, Files for Bankruptcy Google Lens powering new 'Screen Search' in Chrome for iOS Extra Finger ring On Probabilism and Determinism in AI My Life in Weeks by Gina Trapani A delightful look into the Murdochs' Succession Drama James Murdoch interview Roasted Chicken Thighs With Hot Honey and Lime Leobait: Thermomix cult Australian lamb video with comments section Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guests: Ethan Sutin and Maria de Lourdes Zollo Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: zscaler.com/security
Interview with the founders of Bee.computer Would Paris or Jeff get a Bee? Scarlett Johansson Urges Government to Limit A.I. After Faked Video of Her Opposing Kanye West Goes Viral Microsoft announces quantum computing breakthrough with new Majorana 1 chip A 'Teleportation' Breakthrough for Quantum Computing Is Here Google's AI Efforts Marred by Turf Disputes Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, releases its latest flagship model, Grok 3 Marcus: Elon Musk's terrifying vision for AI Richard Feynman: Can Machines Think? The Humane AI Pin: A $700 Brick of E-Waste AI Notetakers In Meetings Are Making Me Queasy - Bloomberg AI Designs Plastic-Digesting Enzyme Nikola, Electric Truck Maker, Files for Bankruptcy Google Lens powering new 'Screen Search' in Chrome for iOS Extra Finger ring On Probabilism and Determinism in AI My Life in Weeks by Gina Trapani A delightful look into the Murdochs' Succession Drama James Murdoch interview Roasted Chicken Thighs With Hot Honey and Lime Leobait: Thermomix cult Australian lamb video with comments section Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guests: Ethan Sutin and Maria de Lourdes Zollo Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: zscaler.com/security
Interview with the founders of Bee.computer Would Paris or Jeff get a Bee? Scarlett Johansson Urges Government to Limit A.I. After Faked Video of Her Opposing Kanye West Goes Viral Microsoft announces quantum computing breakthrough with new Majorana 1 chip A 'Teleportation' Breakthrough for Quantum Computing Is Here Google's AI Efforts Marred by Turf Disputes Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, releases its latest flagship model, Grok 3 Marcus: Elon Musk's terrifying vision for AI Richard Feynman: Can Machines Think? The Humane AI Pin: A $700 Brick of E-Waste AI Notetakers In Meetings Are Making Me Queasy - Bloomberg AI Designs Plastic-Digesting Enzyme Nikola, Electric Truck Maker, Files for Bankruptcy Google Lens powering new 'Screen Search' in Chrome for iOS Extra Finger ring On Probabilism and Determinism in AI My Life in Weeks by Gina Trapani A delightful look into the Murdochs' Succession Drama James Murdoch interview Roasted Chicken Thighs With Hot Honey and Lime Leobait: Thermomix cult Australian lamb video with comments section Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guests: Ethan Sutin and Maria de Lourdes Zollo Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: zscaler.com/security
Interview with the founders of Bee.computer Would Paris or Jeff get a Bee? Scarlett Johansson Urges Government to Limit A.I. After Faked Video of Her Opposing Kanye West Goes Viral Microsoft announces quantum computing breakthrough with new Majorana 1 chip A 'Teleportation' Breakthrough for Quantum Computing Is Here Google's AI Efforts Marred by Turf Disputes Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, releases its latest flagship model, Grok 3 Marcus: Elon Musk's terrifying vision for AI Richard Feynman: Can Machines Think? The Humane AI Pin: A $700 Brick of E-Waste AI Notetakers In Meetings Are Making Me Queasy - Bloomberg AI Designs Plastic-Digesting Enzyme Nikola, Electric Truck Maker, Files for Bankruptcy Google Lens powering new 'Screen Search' in Chrome for iOS Extra Finger ring On Probabilism and Determinism in AI My Life in Weeks by Gina Trapani A delightful look into the Murdochs' Succession Drama James Murdoch interview Roasted Chicken Thighs With Hot Honey and Lime Leobait: Thermomix cult Australian lamb video with comments section Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guests: Ethan Sutin and Maria de Lourdes Zollo Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: zscaler.com/security
STERNENGESCHICHTEN LIVE TOUR 2025! Tickets unter https://sternengeschichten.live Wie funktioniert die Gravitation? Wissen wir nicht! Die Theorie der Le-Sage-Gravitation hat aber zumindest so ausgesehen, als könnte sie funktionieren. Worum es dabei geht erfahrt, ihr in der neuen Folge der Sternengeschichten. Wer den Podcast finanziell unterstützen möchte, kann das hier tun: Mit PayPal (https://www.paypal.me/florianfreistetter), Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/sternengeschichten) oder Steady (https://steadyhq.com/sternengeschichten)
How much more physics is out there to be discovered? Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down with physicist, professor, and rockstar Brian Cox, to discuss everything from the Higgs boson, life beyond our planet, and the fundamental forces that guide our universe.NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/our-world-of-particles-with-brian-cox/Thanks to our Patrons Anthony Sclafani, Alejandro Arriola-Flores, Brian Christensen, Allen Baker, Atlanta Gamer, Nigel Gandy, Gene, Lisa Mettler, Daniel Johansson, Sunny Malhotra, Omar Marcelino, yoyodave, Mo TheRain, William Wilson, ChrissyK, David, Prabakar Venkataraman, PiaThanos22, BlackPiano, Radak Bence, Obaid Mohammadi, the1eagleman1, Scott Openlander, Brandon Micucci, Anastasios Kotoros, Thomas Ha, Phillip Thompson, Bojemo, Kenan Brooks, jmamblat@duck.com, TartarXO, Trinnie Schley, Davidson Zetrenne, and William Kramer for supporting us this week. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.
Jirayr Zorthian, Armenian genocide, Yale, Skull & Bones, Works Progress Administration (WPA), Zorthian's murals, Pentagon, Tennessee state capital, Army intelligence, Ritchie boys, Charles Manson, Tate murders, Hans Hebe, Army intelligence links to Manson, did Manson visit the Zorthian ranch?, postwar California communes, Zorthian Ranch, recyclable materials, day to day life at the Zorthian ranch, how wild were the parties?, paranormal phenomena at the ranch, UFOs, Richard Feynman, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Jack Parsons, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Devil's Gate, Babylon Working, L. Eon Hubbard, Marjorie Cameron, Parsons and Cameron at the Zorthian, Marjorie's artwork at the Zorthian, LA fires, what was destroyed at the Zorthian, UFOs seen during the LA fires, Israel, Jack Parsons' relationship with Israel, Levon Helms, Elizabeth's Levon Helms ghost storyZorthian Ranch's GoFund Me:https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-zorthian-ranch-recoverFor Elizabeth's Zoom group:https://www.facebook.com/witchinneworleansMusic by: Keith Allen Dennishttps://keithallendennis.bandcamp.com/Additional Music: Stone Breathhttps://stonebreath.bandcamp.com/album/the-shepherdess-and-the-bone-white-bird Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Share shawarma with the award-winning Eric Choi as we discuss what William Shatner's Captain Kirk might sound like dubbed into Cantonese, the wonders of fan-run science fiction conventions, how the Asimov competition gave him the courage to make his first submission, what it was like co-editing an anthology with the great Ben Bova, the accident that gave birth to his first short story collection, why his claim never to have experienced writer's block comes with a footnote, his moving memories of the Columbia accident as experienced at the Kennedy Space Center, the Richard Feynman quote he shared throughout the pandemic, why the first Harry Turtledove story he read wasn't written by Harry Turtledove, his unfortunate introduction to The Lord of the Rings, and much more.
Ready to spark real change in your organization? In this episode, Brian Milner sits down with April K. Mills, founder of Engine for Change, to reveal how anyone can become a powerful change agent—without waiting for permission. Learn how to drive meaningful change, navigate resistance, and reignite Agile practices with strategies that actually work. Overview In this inspiring episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast, Brian Milner talks with April K. Mills, CEO of Engine for Change and author of Everyone is a Change Agent, about what it truly means to lead change. April explains how effective change agents focus on clearing obstacles rather than forcing compliance, and why fostering curiosity, empowerment, and collaboration is key to sustainable change. From navigating corporate roadblocks to revitalizing Agile practices, April shares actionable insights and tactics to help you take control and make a lasting impact—whether you're in a small startup or a global enterprise. References and resources mentioned in the show: April K. Mills Everyone is a Change Agent: A Guide to the Change Agent Essentials by April K. Mills Change Tactics: 50 Ways Change Agents Boldly Escape the Status Quo by April K. Mills Certified ScrumMaster® Training and Scrum Certification Mountain Goat Software Certified Scrum and Agile Training Schedule Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode’s presenters are: Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. April K. Mills is an engineer-turned-change-evangelist and author of Everyone is a Change Agent and Change Tactics, empowers individuals and organizations to thrive through change using her proven Change Agent Essentials. With a passion for turning ideas into action, April helps people drive meaningful change with the time, title, and budget they already have. Auto-generated Transcript: Brian (00:00) Welcome in Agile Mentors. We're back for another episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast. I'm with you as always, Brian Milner. And today I have April K. Mills with us. Welcome in April. April K. Mills (00:11) Thanks for having me. Brian (00:13) Very happy to have April with us. April is the founder and CEO of an organization called Engine for Change. That's engine-for-change.com. That's her website. She's also an author. There's a book that she put out called, Everyone is a Change Agent, a Guide to the Change Agent Essentials. And that's what we wanted to have her on to talk about today with a little bit about being a change agent. Now I shouldn't say from the outset, April is a request. We had a listener request for April to come on. And I always love that. I always try to push those people to the top of our list and get them on as soon as possible. And it was such an interesting topic. I thought this would be just a really great way to have a great topic to have early in 2025. So April, let's start with just trying to understand when we say change agent, how do you define that? What do you mean by change agent? April K. Mills (01:09) Yeah, a change agent is someone who takes action to bring about the change they want to see in the world. So rather than waiting for a boss or a corporate program or somebody from HR to come in and say, hey, let's improve this process, the change agent sees the need for a change and takes action. And the big thing I talk about in my books and my work is the difference between what typically happens when somebody sees a need for a change in an organization where they decide, I'm gonna go get a boss to go make everybody do my idea. I call that driving people. And I draw the contrast with that and driving change where you choose the change for yourself and you clear the obstacles for others to choose it too. And I love talking about that with Agile audiences especially because Agile is a change agent movement. of folks who want to drive change. I see a better way to create this product and I want to be part of it. And that's always what's drawn me into the agile space. Brian (02:13) Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. And it is a big change, right? To think about the dynamics of someone kind of sitting back and saying, yeah, I see something that needs to be done. I see something that should be a different way, but you know, who am I to say anything about this? Who am I to do anything about versus the person who actually takes action and does things. So that kind of leads to a question about change agents. What kind of skills or traits do you think are really helpful or beneficial to someone to be a better change agent. April K. Mills (02:46) Well, the key is that difference between driving people and driving change. It's not what degree do you have, it's not how long have you been in the industry, it's not are you a people person, are you more focused on the data or some of those factors that we usually like to talk about. It really is, are you willing to take the step yourself first and clear those obstacles and encourage and invite people to join you? Or do you want somebody to make them obey you? And that choice is really the key for anybody to be a change agent. Because so many times we've seen people who might be able to convince the boss, hey, our team should be agile. And what happens, right? It goes on for about three months. The team gets frustrated. The boss gets angry. And then everybody starts to have a reaction when you bring it up, right? I'm sure plenty of the listeners have gone into an organization. If you're passionate about agile and you go, hey, have you guys heard about agile? And they go, ooh. And they make like a face. That's because they've encountered somebody who is driving people. And so that's the big focus I always try and talk with people about is can you show up with that willingness to let people join you and understand what their obstacles are to doing it. Brian (03:57) What are some kind of warning signs or signals you'd look for to kind of recognize whether I'm actually approaching this from a driving people perspective versus driving the change? April K. Mills (04:08) So a lot of times the key is how are you thinking about or talking about in your own head about the people around you or even yourself? We have a tendency to drive ourselves as well. So you can hear it in the language, right? I'm frustrated because so-and-so won't listen. I wish I could get more attention. It's all this sort of vague or... putting the action onto someone else and then complain the action isn't happening fast enough. You can hear it in the language. And so when someone's driving change, you don't hear that. hear, you know, I'm working on, I'm doing, the next thing is my action is I'm going to go talk with this person. I want to understand. I'm going to be curious. And you get this agency, this power coming back into your body almost, and then taking taking the next step from there. And so it's almost easy. You can almost say, well, how far outside your body would you put the power to make this change happen is a useful question to ask people. And if they say, well, it's in the CEO of the company, it's in the industry, it's in my tech lead, but it's certainly not me, well, then you're not a change agent. Brian (05:20) So that brings up a good point because I think I can try to channel what the listeners might be thinking here. I know that in times I've been in organizations where, yeah, you have the ideal, you have the thing that you think is the best thing to do. But because the power dynamics in the organization, you don't really have the power to make that change and you depend a little bit on others that have the power to to help affect it. And so there is a sort of an aspect of, I don't really have the capability or the power to cause this change to happen. How can I still stay with that mindset of driving change versus driving people when I know I need someone else's help? April K. Mills (06:03) Right. So that's a great conversation. And I've started to call it phase one Agile versus phase two Agile. I'm old enough in this space where when I first joined, a lot of Agile was team-based. Somebody on the team or several people on the team said, yeah, I want better. And these are the things that we can do as a team to deliver better. And let's do them together. And then the problem was the teams could do it, but they couldn't scale it. And they were like, if only we could get the senior leaders to pay attention to us, that would solve all our problems. And then you get phase two agile, which was executives buying agile implementations and forcing it down on people. There is one right way and we will do exactly this and you must conform and no other versions are allowed. And then we got the fractures and all of the fights about all of the different aspects. And so we tried it both ways, right? We tried it with the team effort and then we tried it with this thou shalt effort. And I think the key to actually making Agile work across organizations and deeper into organizations is to keep that energy from the team-based Agile to say, we're choosing something better, but it's that piece of driving change. What are the obstacles for others to choose it to? We didn't do that step. We went from my team does it, now the boss should make everybody else do what my team does. And I think that's where we got off track. in really scaling Agile into something that was sustainable and brought that joy and commitment and everyday wanting to show up and be better across the organization. So that's what I would encourage folks to do is not try to cheat that step of getting your fellow teams and larger systems to join you by finding somebody with the power to make them be like you. Brian (07:50) That's fascinating. I know that in some of these changes I've been involved with as well, there can be things that happen that kind of find yourself stalled a little bit, right? The initiative or the changes you're trying to affect just doesn't feel like it's going where it needs to go. What advice do you have for people who feel like they're in that place where they feel like they're kind of stalled out? in the change. April K. Mills (08:16) Yeah, so a lot of the things I talk about in that book you mentioned everyone is a change agent are different tactics you can use to overcome that. One of the key things that I talk about is what I call a change buffer, which is how can you make the rules where you're at different than those rules across the organization? I mean, let's take a simple example. Let's say there's five software teams in a business. Very simple example, right? And one is doing some practices and they'd love for those practices to spread. but they're not spreading as fast as they would hope. One of the ways to protect your change is to say, on our team, we will behave this way, declare it, make it what I call a policy buffer. So when one of those other four teams says, well, why are you doing it that way? You can point to the piece of paper and say, we've agreed to behave this way. Now, if you'd love to join us, we'd love to share that with you, but this team behaves this way. So then it's not every developer having to defend in effect the practices, which can get exhausting. But then you can start to ask them, what's your policy on your team? How do you do this? And get curious. Not in a, I'm trying to lure them in and trap them into my way of behaving, but in a, really want to understand, do they have a different measure that they're being exposed to? How can we help maybe get that measure off of them? Do they have a boss who's got a different standard for what quality looks like? Well, should we have a corporate conversation around, quality across the five teams should be the same. We don't tend to have those because we want to skip the step of coming into that alignment together and just have a policy somehow drop from the stars that aligns with my values. yeah, policy buffers are really big to protect a change and help it spread and have those curious conversations at the edges. Think of it like system integration, right? You can't just dictate, you have to understand and merge. Brian (10:11) Let's say we put in place a policy buffer like that on our team and our whole team agrees to doing something and we think this is the right way of doing things. And someone higher in the organization, some manager or leader finds out about this and says, no, I don't want that to happen. We've been trying to affect the change, right? And not push the individual. But now we do have the individual who's saying, you shall not do this. How do you overcome that when you're the change engine? April K. Mills (10:38) Yeah, so a lot of times you have to understand what are the assumptions that that leader is making and again get curious, right? Because if we focus not on the method but on the outcome, we should be able to get alignment faster. So rather than going into a boss and saying, method A is my choice, method B is yours, you know, it's a cage match, two will enter, one will leave. You instead want to show up and say, Well, I think we both agree we want to deliver quality products on time that customers love at the lowest possible production costs. Are we aligned on that or not? And if they say yes, then you say, okay, now let's just understand what are you asking for? And from my perspective as a person who has to implement that, here's how I think that impacts our ability to deliver quality products that customers love at the lowest possible production costs. And these methods that I'm using are doing this and here's my data or evidence. And so you in effect want to shift it where it's not me looking at you, but as people are probably going to see on this podcast, it's us next to each other. So if we instead frame it as me and the leader looking at the issue together, because we want to win together, we're not in competition. So again, it's about seeking to understand, removing those obstacles so that we can be aligned together to go there together. Brian (11:57) I love the idea of backtracking a little bit and finding that common ground and going from that space. I think that's a great approach. I know I've had success with that in my career too, of being able to find, well, we agree on this, right? And if we agree on this, now we're just talking about the best way of getting from where we are to there. And then it's less personal, then it's less about the person, it's more about the best strategy. And we're a little bit less... personally invested that we think it's a you know a personal affront or challenge if it's if it's more about the idea So I agree. I think that's a that's a great kind of approach to doing that How about the differences in just the the context of this if I'm a change I know you know I've been in some small organizations. I've been in some medium large-sized organizations and You know I think anyone who's been in large organizations would say Well, yeah, that's nice and easy when it's in a startup, right? If I'm in a startup, then yeah, everyone's wearing a lot of different hats and it's really easy to make change, but you know, the institutional kind of inertia that can take place in larger organizations, how do you overcome that as a change agent? April K. Mills (13:00) Yeah, well, I can speak to that from deep experience because my background started as a civilian nuclear engineer for the US Navy in a hundred year old shipyard. And I started six weeks before September 11th. So I came into a nuclear shipyard, a hundred years old, very staid in the way they did things, optimized for the shipyard and the world changed. Brian (13:03) Ha ha ha ha. April K. Mills (13:25) And I watched as that organization struggled to deal with the rate of change that was being imposed upon them. And a lot of the things that I talk about in everyone is a change agent came out of that experience of understanding what tactics worked, what didn't, what philosophy worked, what didn't to be able to empower people to make changes happen. And we made amazing changes happen in the shipyard. And then I went on and did 10 years with Intel Corporation, right? The chip maker and taught these things globally and saw people do amazing things within the company. Now it's true, if you don't get the main rudder of the company, you're not gonna steer it. But there's a lot of change you can make in an organization from where you're at. And I think that's the powerful, powerful thing. And so these tactics work at scale. They work for an individual, right? If you stop talking to yourself like, you know what you need to do? You have to do this or so and so is gonna get mad at you and you instead say, What's our obstacle for getting up early and going to the gym? And how can I clear that? And how can I choose to do that every day all the way up to a team, all the way up to an organization? I've seen these things work all the way through that scale. So I've used it in community projects to deliver an accessible playground in three and a half years when everybody said it would take five or 10. And these tactics have also been proven, although they weren't listed this way, in historical successes. If you think about when Admiral Rickover founded the nuclear Navy back in 1950, they went from approval to use nuclear power to USS Nautilus underway in five years. We can't deliver anything in five years anymore because we constantly are looking for who's going to make people, how are we going to force them? Can we keep them forced to do it? And with employee turnover, with system turnover, with the rate of change, I would argue this era of driving people has to end because it wasn't ever really effective, but it's getting less and less effective. And that's the name of my second book, which is Change Tactics, which is both you should change tactics and here are some change tactics to help people accelerate their results. Brian (15:36) That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, it gets really deep really quickly here too, because you start to think about even the way we manage our projects and the fact that a lot of more traditional project management is sort of, when we talk about this change agent approach, is sort of managing the people and trying to push and drive the people towards deadlines, some, not even an outcome, but a timeline. versus trying to affect the outcomes that we're trying to achieve as an end result instead. So it really is interconnected, isn't it, through even the way we set up our projects? April K. Mills (16:13) Yes, it totally is. And I have that in the book and in the classes I teach is where is the force? So I'm an engineer by training, right? So I'm constantly looking and thinking about where's the force in the system if it was a pump or a reactor plant or whatever. And you can see it to your point with the program management is your, are you spending most of your time trying to push people to do something? Or are you moving the form, fit and function of whatever the product is? If that's delivering code and integrating code, if that's a physical product, are you clearing the obstacle so that product moves forward faster? And you hear this and see this in stories of what's going on at SpaceX, right? When they're confronting something about, can't get a part for six months or I can't get a part for a year and it's gonna cost me $50,000, they're saying. Isn't it just sheet metal? How could we make that in two weeks with what we've got? Because they're not talking about you should be able to shrink that timeline. What are you doing? Why aren't you talking to the vendor enough? aren't you pushing on the vendor hard enough? They're saying, what is the physical thing we need and how fast can we get it? And it's allowing them to shrink product costs. It's allowing them to shrink durations. It's what Rickover did in the 50s. It's what Andy Grove did with Intel back when it was Intel delivers in the 80s and 90s. Focus on the product, focus on the physics, focus on the engineering, the mechanics to support the engineering, the operations to support the mechanics, and you'll deliver products faster. And at the heart of all of that is change agents because they're not trying to get somebody to obey. They want to get something amazing done. Brian (17:50) One of the things I found kind of in when I've worked with organizations and talked with organizations about kind of moving from point A to point B is the fact that you kind of need help. kind of need, know, a lot of times people will try to make these changes all on their own and they sort of take the weight of the world on their shoulders. I can't figure out why it's not working. How do you kind of co-opt others into your strategy? April K. Mills (18:14) Yeah, well, the best way is to share with them what you've learned about being a change agent. I've had countless folks who, know, one person will read my book or come to a class and they'll go back and try it and people will get curious because you show up differently. So a simple example that I give in the book is rather than sending a mandatory meeting, which we're all guilty of, right, we get an assignment. and we go into the global outlook calendar and we pick people and we make them mandatory and we order them to come to our meeting. We say, Brian gave me this assignment. You have to come. Brian said this is really important. Come to my meeting or else. And we do that. That's the default. And I encourage folks from a driving change perspective to instead, maybe Brian, you gave me that assignment, but my meeting notice would say, I've been asked by Brian to lead this. I'm excited to do that. Here's why I've chosen this as the thing I'm going to focus on. I've marked you all optional. I think you have the skills and capabilities that would be amazing on this team. And if you're as passionate as I am, I'd love you to partner with me. We're going to start meeting on Tuesday. If you're not the right one, feel free to tell me. But I'm moving forward on Tuesday with whoever's there. And I'm really grateful that I get to work in an organization with you. Now. Who's gonna come to, which meeting are you gonna come to? The April says Brian's gonna be mad at you if you don't, or the one where April's gonna go off and do something amazing, I don't wanna miss out. And anybody can do that because everybody send in meeting notices out to people. So the simplest actions have the most powerful results. Brian (19:31) Ha It really is a cultural change too, right? mean, that's a very different cultural kind of approach to it to say, hey, it's optional, but, you know, get on board with this idea. If this is something that you're excited about, I want you to be a part of this versus, hey, you've got to, that's your job. you know, I've been given the authority to, to demand that you be here and, and, and, you know, really want. So, so how do you. You know culture changes is obviously one of the hardest things to do in an organization. How do you start to if you're a change agent? How do you start to? Change the culture in the organization to be more in line with that April K. Mills (20:25) So my focus is always on the culture starts with one. So people will treat you the way you show up. And so show up as a change agent and the world will bend around you in reaction to it. Now I do have a chapter in the book where I talk about my son who's got special needs and he took a long time for him to walk. He had to walk with forearm crutches. And the first time we were really out in public, he was walking with his forearm crutches. And you could tell that people were really confused and concerned, right? It's different. He's a small child. He looks very fragile. And you had all these reactions from people about, well, you know, where's his mother? Cause I was watching him from a little ways away. I always joke, no one ever asked where's his father if a child is wandering off. But you know, they're watching him and you could tell there were people that wanted to either pick him up and do it for him. Take him someplace because he looks so fragile, let me help you. Or they were mad that he was off on his own and I wasn't hovering. And I use that story for the same thing here. Because when you go off and you say, let's make this optional, I'm passionate about it, I'm committed, and even if I'm alone in this room, I'm going to move this forward, people are going to look at you funny. Like my son with his forearm crutches because they're used to somebody walking off strong, demanding, creating space. But it doesn't mean that that's necessarily the best way to do it. And so you have to be comfortable being different. And I use the concept of change buffers to help people with that. A personal buffer might be like Richard Feynman, the noted physicist. I don't care what other people think. I'm going to be me, their concerns to the wind. A friendship buffer. I'm going to go off and do this. when somebody goes, April's crazy. I call my friend Brian and you go, you're not crazy. You're doing the right thing. Keep it up. Let's go for coffee, let's go for the beer, whatever. A leadership buffer, maybe you're my boss and you believe in this, you've seen it. I go off and do it, people give me a hard time. I go, hey, take it up with Brian, my boss. We do things this way in his group. Or back to that policy buffer. In my group, we drive change, not people. So when somebody shows up differently, folks go, you know, why are you doing that? it's just the way we work. And that's what I've built in organizations over the years. The people that were in The groups with me that were doing this, depending on how comfortable and how strong they felt, could either say, I'm different, live with it. Or they could say, we're different. Or the policy is different. Whatever they needed to feel strong enough to show up differently. Because when you show up differently, you get amazing results. Brian (22:58) Yeah. That's so, that's so awesome. I completely agree. What if people are listening to this and hearing all this and getting excited about it and thinking, yeah, this is, this sounds like something I want to participate in. is, it sounds like something I want to start to do. if someone feels inspired by this conversation and wants to be, become more of a change agent, uh, but they really just don't know where to start. What are some practical things that you would give them to say, here's, here's a good way to start to, to move down this path. April K. Mills (23:27) Yeah, well, the simplest one is that's why you write books, right? So my book is available. I self-published it on purpose to make it very affordable. So it's, think, $9.99. Everyone is a change agent. It's $14.99 for change tactics because I accidentally wrote a longer book than I intended. sorry. When I got the first copy, I'm like, oh, that's more than I thought it was. OK. But so both of those. So for, you know, the price of a meal. Brian (23:44) You April K. Mills (23:54) for one person these days with inflation, right? You can get two books that help you not only have the basis, but have some just simple tactics, almost like a recipe book you can use. And then later this spring, I'm rolling out with my Engine for Change Company, this Change Agent Essentials class, which is based on that content. I've been teaching it now for 10 years in corporations. As we were talking before we started, right, I'm a recovering hider in corporations, I guess. Now I'm coming out into the world. And so it's going to be available for folks if they want to take the class to get that more immersive experience. So I'm really excited to bring it to the world because it works. And I'm especially passionate about agile people using it because there's too much conversation around agile dying and we need better products delivered faster that customers love at the lowest possible costs. And I don't know a better way to get there. So we got to reclaim agile from the driving people. Brian (24:47) Yeah, I completely agree. you know, anyone who's been involved in Agile in any significant, you know, way I'm sure would probably agree that it's not that the core concepts in any way are, are less, valid or, or, or no longer practical or anything like that. It's just people have seen so much bad versions of things that now that that definition has been marred a little bit, I would say. And so now we, we, we have to kind of take Like you said, take back control of that a little bit and say, now here's what it really is, and here's why we do things this way. And I like your approach there. Find the common ground and say, here's, you know, we both believe in this. Well, what's the best way of doing that? You know, here's what we think. April K. Mills (25:28) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's going to be a really exciting time as we go into 2025. There's so much change happening, but so much of it is at that default of driving people. So there's a huge opportunity to show up differently, to create a ripple. That one person can create that ripple. You three people can support each other while they try these new things. By the time you get to five, you almost have critical mass, right? At least two of you will always be online at any one time to support each other. And you can grow it from there. And I've seen great, great things happen. And it really is an unleashing of energy. If people can remember the first feeling they had when they found Agile and it was like, yeah, that feels more like what a professional does. And that excitement and that energy, you can get back to that and you can get back to that by driving change. Brian (26:24) Love it, love it, this is awesome. Well, this has been a great conversation. I really appreciate you coming on. We're gonna put links to everything in our show notes for everyone so you can get to April's company and find out more about her classes and also find out more about her books there as well. So April, thank you so much for coming on. April K. Mills (26:40) Thanks for having me. It was an honor to be recommended. Brian (26:43) Well, and our honor to have you on as well. So thank you for our listeners and recommending people and thank you April for making the time for us.
This week, Dan Higgins returns for Shrek. Please, can I pet that dog? Can you rotate an apple in your head? Why does Kai owe Cameron Diaz an apology? “It's offensive if you're not a little stupid about it.” - Dan Higgins Be sure to follow and check out Dan's musical endeavors on SoundCloud and Instagram (@danontheinternets). Additionally, Dan also encourages you to check out the work of American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman and to watch the documentary series Cosmos by astronomer Carl Sagan. Go to linktr.ee/rottentreasure to listen, like, follow, rate and review. It really helps the show! You can also support the podcast to gain early access to episodes, promotional opportunities and even get extra franchise rank and review episodes. Who knows?! The tier system. That's who. Visit patreon.com/rottentreasure to learn more!
Following the Challenger disaster, engineers grapple with guilt and the consequences of raising concerns about the space shuttle's flaws. Amidst public outcry, the Rogers Commission's inquiry, including Richard Feynman's stark demonstration of the O-Rings' vulnerability, uncovers what was known about the design failures and the economic pressures that led officials to move forward anyway. Be the first to know about Wondery's newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterListen to American Scandal on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season. Unlock exclusive early access by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial today by visiting wondery.com/links/american-scandal/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Get more notes at https://podcastnotes.org This podcast consists of a conversation between Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi going over Naval's famous How to Get Rich tweetstorm.Key Takeaways* Wealth buys you freedom* EVERYONE can be rich* Aim to become so good at something, that luck eventually finds you* Over time, it isn't luck – it's destiny* You're not going to get rich renting out your time* Aim to have a job, career, or profession where your inputs don't match your outputs* People who are living far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyle just can't fathom* Get rich by giving society what it doesn't yet know how to get – at scale* The internet has massively broadened the space of possible careers* Whatever nice obsession you have, the internet allows you to scale it* Escape competition through authenticity* All the benefits in life come from compound interest* Whether it's in relationships, life, your career, health, or learning* Pick people to work with who have high intelligence, high energy, and high integrity – you CANNOT compromise on this* Really successful people have an action bias* Arm yourself with specific knowledge* Specific knowledge is the stuff that feels like play to you but looks like work to others. It's found by pursuing your innate talents, your genuine curiosity, and your passion.* Learning to build AND sell products is a superpower* Read what you love until you love to read* The 5 most important skills are reading, writing, arithmetic, persuasion, and computer programming* The number of iterations drives the learning curve* Get comfortable with frequent, small failures* If you're willing to bleed a little bit every day, but in exchange, you win big later, you'll be better off* Embrace accountability and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage* Product leverage is how fortunes will be made in the digital age – using things like code or media* Product and media leverage are permisionless – they don't require someone else's permission for you to use them or succeed* Wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions* Judgment is wisdom on a personal domain (wisdom applied to external problems)* The people with the best judgment are actually among the least emotional* Set and enforce an aspirational hourly rate* If you can outsource something for less than your hourly rate, outsource it* The hierarchy of importance:* What you work on* Picking the right people to work with* How hard you work* A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to do great things in this world* Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.* Reject most advice, but remember you have to listen to/read enough of it to know what to reject and what to accept* Your physical health, your mental health, and your relationships will most likely bring you more peace and happiness than any amount of money ever will* Productize yourself* Create a product out of whatever it is you do naturally and uniquely well* Being honest leaves you with a clear mind* “A lot of wisdom is just realizing the long-term consequences of your actions. The longer-term you're willing to look, the wiser you're going to seem to everybody around you.” – Naval Ravikant* Negotiations are won by whoever cares lessBooks Mentioned* Warren Buffet once went to Benjamin Graham, author of The Intelligent Investor, and offered to work for him for free so he could learn about investing* It's important that you read foundational things (the original books in a given field which are scientific in nature)* Instead of reading a random business book, read The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith* Instead of reading a recent book on biology or evolution, read Darwin's On The Origin of Species* Instead of reading a recent biotech book, read The Eighth Day of Creation* Another recommendation – Richard Feynman's Six Easy Pieces* Naval highly recommends Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb* When Naval was younger, one of his favorite books was How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis* To learn more about randomness, check out the highly recommended book – Fooled By Randomness by Nassim Taleb* The Almanac of Naval RavikantSeek Wealth, Not Money or Status (Listen) | Episode 1* Having wealth means having assets that earn while you sleep* “The reason you want wealth is because it buys you freedom, so you don't have to wear a tie like a collar around your neck, so you don't have to wake up at 7 AM and rush to work in traffic, so you don't have to waste away your entire life grinding all your productive hours away to a soulless job that doesn't fulfill you.” – Naval Ravikant* Money is how we transfer wealth* “Money won't solve all your problems, but it will solve all your money problems” – Naval Ravikant* Wealth is a positive-sum game and status is a zero-sum gameEthical Wealth Creation Makes Abundance for the World (Listen) | Episode 2* “What I am basically focused on is true wealth creation. It's not about taking money. It's not about taking something from somebody else. But it's from creating abundance.” – Naval Ravikant* Basically all of the wealth society has today was created – we're not still sitting around in caves figuring out how to divide pieces of firewood* “Everyone can be rich” – Naval Ravikant* In the First World, everyone is basically richer than almost anyone who was alive 200 years ago* Furthermore, it's better to be poor today than it was to be the richest man 200 years ago* Here's a thought experiment…* Imagine if every human had the knowledge of a good software engineer – just think what society would look like 20 years from now* We'd ALL be living in massive abundanceFree Markets Are Intrinsic to the Human Species (Listen) | Episode 3* Capitalism is innate to the human species in every exchange we have* When two people are talking – there's an information exchange* “The notion of exchange and keeping track of credits and debits – this is built into us as flexible social animals” – Naval Ravikant* Humans are the only animals in the animal kingdom that cooperate across genetic boundaries* Most animals don't even cooperate – those that do cooperate only in packs or when they have some shared interest* What lets humans cooperate?* Keeping track of credits and debts – that's free-market capitalism* “Everybody can be wealthy, everybody can be retired, everybody can be successful” – Naval Ravikant* It just comes down to education and desire* “If you get too many takers and not enough makers, society falls apart” – Naval Ravikant* This results in a communist country* Ex. – VenezuelaGet the FULL NOTES at Podcastnotes.org. 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Are we ever gonna find out why they call him the Rhino? This week Nando DJ and Diggins journey into the jungles of Russia/England or whatever to watch the movie that will maybe end the SPUMC once and for all, Kraven the Hunter. They nitpick the animals, the hunters, and of course the Foreigner. Recommendation DJ - The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On - Season Three (series) Diggins - Ronin (movie), the sham legacy or Richard Feynman (video) Nando - Creature Commandos (series), What We Do in the Shadows (series), Heretic (movie) Plugs Mostly Nitpicking on Bluesky The Nando v Movies Discord Roses and Rejections Diggins' Substack - A Little Perspective All of Nando's Links Mostly Nitpicking theme by Nick Porcaro Logo by Michelle Chapman
Danny Hillis is an inventor, scientist, author, and engineer. While completing his doctorate at MIT, he pioneered the parallel computers that are the basis for the processors used for AI and most high-performance computer chips. He is now a founding partner with Applied Invention, working on new ideas in cybersecurity, medicine, and agriculture.Kevin Kelly is the founding executive editor of WIRED magazine, the former editor and publisher of the Whole Earth Review, and a bestselling author of books on technology and culture, including Excellent Advice for Living. Subscribe to Kevin's newsletter, Recomendo, at recomendo.com. Sponsors:Momentous high-quality supplements: https://livemomentous.com/tim (code TIM for 20% off)Eight Sleep's Pod 4 Ultra sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating: https://eightsleep.com/tim (save between $400 and $600 on the Pod 4 Ultra)AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: https://DrinkAG1.com/Tim (1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase.)*For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsorsSign up for Tim's email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim's books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissYouTube: youtube.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim's seventh appearance on the show. He last appeared on episode 210 with David Albert for a discussion of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. In this episode, Tim and Robinson talk about Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. More particularly, they get into Einstein's magnificent mind, how special relativity displaced the theory of the ether, absolute and relative space, the speed and nature of light, the possibility of time travel, relativistic quantum mechanics, and more. If you're interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute's life. Tim's Website: www.tim-maudlin.site The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:59 The Amazing Fertility of Einstein's Mind 08:50 The Mysterious Ether and Why It Isn't All Around Us 25:01 Einstein Versus Relative and Absolute Space 29:58 The Single Most Important Experiment in Physics 45:23 Special Relativity and Absolute Space 53:56 The Conceptual Clarity of Genius Physicists 1:01:05 A Thought Experiment to Explain Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity 1:13:48 Is the Speed of Light an Illusion? 1:23:33 Richard Feynman's Big Mistake About Einstein 1:34:23 On Einstein and the Possibility of Time Travel 1:42:53 Is Special Relativity Compatible with Quantum Mechanics? 1:49:55 Relativistic Bohmian Mechanics 1:57:00 Does Anything Move Faster than Light? 1:59:03 The John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics Robinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support
In this episode, Rick connects with Richard Feynman, the brilliant physicist and Nobel Prize winner. Known for his groundbreaking contributions to quantum mechanics, Feynman's work continues to inspire curiosity and innovation in science. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Athletic Nicotine https://www.athleticnicotine.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Sign up to receive Tetragrammaton Transmissions https://www.tetragrammaton.com/join-newsletter
5 practices to adopt and 3 bad habits to avoid to improve mental clarity and decision-making. This episode covers some of the best lessons from Cal Newport's writing on Deep Work and Slow Productivity. We focus on becoming deeper thinkers who question easy answers and build opinions from a place of deep understanding. Top lessons: How to avoid shallow thinking traps Understand where your opinions come from Interval Training for concentration Ways to think like an intellectual Increase your working memory Understand ideas from multiple perspectives Enjoy slower and more purposeful progress This episode is a blueprint for building wisdom and clarity of thought and we can't recommend Cal Newport's work enough and his ideas shared in this episode. Upgrade to Premium: