The Great Progression: Peter Leyden on AI, Trump and the Next 25 Years
In this episode, host Nicola talks with futurist Peter Leyden about his upcoming book, *The Great Progression* (2025‑2050), which maps the next wave of AI‑driven “smartification” of everyday objects and industries. Leyden contrasts this AI era with the digital revolution he chronicled in the 1990s, emphasizing that intelligence is now cheap, abundant, and instantly deployable on existing cloud infrastructure, accelerating change far faster than the internet rollout. He shares his optimistic outlook, drawing on his hybrid career as a journalist, entrepreneur, and strategic foresight advisor, and stresses the importance of connecting disparate trends—technology, geopolitics, climate—to understand the broader AI economy. The conversation also touches on Leyden’s personal journey from Minnesota to Silicon Valley and his belief that interdisciplinary thinking is the key skill for navigating the coming decades.
Steven Kotler on We Are As Gods: Godlike Power, Stone Age Minds
In this episode, Stephen Kotler discusses his new book *We Are As Gods*, which expands on the optimism of *Abundance* while confronting the darker side of a world flooded with technology, AI, and carbon emissions. He argues that humanity’s Stone‑Age...
We Don’t Need More. We Need Better: Intelligence Scales. Wisdom Does Not.
The episode argues that simply increasing AI capability, data, or innovation is insufficient without a guiding purpose—wisdom does not scale like intelligence. It emphasizes that technology amplifies intent but does not provide moral direction, urging a shift from relentless building...