In a world run by algorithms, how do we stay human? This is Artificial Happiness — where we explore engineered fulfilment, real meaning, and the invisible wiring that shapes our lives. Each week, I speak with those building our future—and the thinkers unpacking what it means to truly thrive.
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There are four ways people try to matter. Transcenders, socializers, heroic strivers, competitors. Rebecca Newberger Goldstein has spent decades mapping them. In this conversation we go through all four, and what happens to them when...
Most people who thought there was a coin-flip chance of human extinction would run from the technology causing it. Emad Mostaque gets up each morning and builds it. Emad Mostaque studied mathematics at Oxford, spent...
A 23-year-old living at his mother’s house, less than a year out of college, started a company with no experience and no plan. Three decades later, that company has 3,000 employees, over $2 billion in...
A company raised 30 million dollars at a 250 million valuation. Nothing strange there, until you learn how. The AI ran its own fundraising. The founder just showed up for signatures. Ben Cera spent years...
What if the cure for a disease already exists inside the data, but nobody is allowed to look at it? Medical records across thousands of hospitals. Genetic data spread across dozens of countries. Research that...
A concrete and positive vision for the future is the scarcest resource in AI right now. Billions of dollars are being poured into capabilities. The number of people working on a credible vision for what...
In 1789, a 21-year-old pretended to be a farmer, boarded a ship to New York, and launched the American Industrial Revolution. Not with blueprints or manuals, but with six years of procedural knowledge locked inside...
There is a question that has separated Nobel Prize winners from scientists who wasted their careers, despite equal talent and equal resources. The question is simple. The answer is uncomfortable. And it applies to every...
The people warning you that AI is too smart have it exactly backwards. The real danger right now is that AI is too stupid, and you have already handed it the keys. Pedro Domingos is...
You probably have someone in your life who, seven years ago, you’d have said sees the world the way you do. Now you look at them and something has fundamentally shifted. The question is: what...
What if the biggest threat to your company isn’t competition, a down round, or a bad hire but the slow erosion of your ability to think clearly? Maria Konnikova is a psychologist, three-time New York...
What if the surest way to fail at something ambitious is to have a clear plan to achieve it? What if a robot that doesn’t know it’s trying to walk learns faster than one explicitly...
What if anxiety, bad habits, and even curiosity can all be explained by a single mathematical principle? What if your brain isn’t processing information—it’s actively constructing fantasies to explain the world? Professor Karl Friston is...
What separates founders who dream from founders who build category-defining companies? How do you take something considered science fiction and make it inevitable? Dr. Sebastian Thrun is the founder of Google X, Waymo, and Udacity—the...
What if everything we believe about teaching and learning is based on a system designed for empires that no longer exist—and children can teach themselves advanced biochemistry without a single qualified teacher? In 1999, Professor...
What if you procrastinate, avoid saving money, and make decisions you later regret not because of willpower—but because your brain treats your future self as a different person? Professor Hal Hershfield from UCLA’s Anderson School...
In a world racing toward artificial general intelligence, one of the world’s leading consciousness researchers argues we’re chasing the wrong goal entirely. What if the brain isn’t a computer at all—and consciousness requires something silicon...
What if the secret to happiness isn’t finding more pleasure, but learning how to keep feeling the pleasure you already have? Neuroscientist Tali Sharot reveals why our brains are wired to stop noticing the good...
In this episode I sit down with psychologist Barry Schwartz whose groundbreaking work continues to shape how we understand choice, freedom, and human flourishing in our rapidly evolving world. Eight years after our first conversation,...
Today I’ve got a friend back on the show for round 2, Carl Honoré. Carl is the author of the international bestseller, ‘In Praise of Slow’ which dissects our speed-obsessed society and celebrates those who...
Today I have the pleasure of having Dr. Michael Shermer back on the show for round 2! Dr. Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, the host of the Science Salon podcast, and a...
Today’s guest is Mark Wolynn. Director and founder of The Family Constellation Institute in San Francisco, Mark is a world leader in the field of inherited family trauma. A bestselling author and sought-after lecturer, he...
Marci Shimoff is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a world-renowned transformational teacher and an expert on happiness, success, and unconditional love. Her books include the international bestsellers ‘Love for No Reason’ and ‘Happy...
Today I’m speaking with Laura Huang. Many of us sit back quietly, hoping that our hard work and effort will speak for itself—only to be left frustrated and discouraged. Or we try to force ourselves...
Best selling author, Dr. John Ratey M.D. is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognised expert in Neuropsychiatry. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and 11 books...
