Luminary

Dec 11 2023 31 ep. 180

Luminary Podcast artwork

Kitchen table-style conversations with some of the world’s brightest minds, exploring boundaries of human knowledge. Join us on a pursuit to discover the ideas, intuition, theories and thoughts behind these luminaries.

Society & Culture Technology Science

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Tim O’Reilly on Open Source Alchemy: Shaping the Tech Landscape

Dec 11 2023 58 mins

Tim O’Reilly is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of O’Reilly Media, a company that has profoundly impacted how generations of software engineers and computer hobbyists have learned programming. Tim is of course a luminary of the technology industry and hardly needs an introduction. It is difficult to overstate the importance of his contributions. Tim has been active in the open s

Yochai Benkler on Tech’s True Forces: Capitalism, Institutions, and Ideological Impact

Nov 06 2023 68 mins

Yochai Benkler is a professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School and co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Yochai is known for coining the term commons-based peer production which describes collaborative efforts or social production in the creation of information goods such as Apache server or Wikipedia. In 201

Jason Crawford on progress and the history of technology

Oct 09 2023 62 mins

Jason Crawford is the founder of Roots of Progress and a prolific writer on all things technology and progress. Jason was previously a startup founder and engineering manager. His mission is to understand the causes of progress and help usher in a new era of human advancement via a philosophy of progress fit for the 21st century. You can find his essays on rootsofprogress.org. O

Noah Smith on digital technology adoption, energy, and economic progress

Sep 04 2023 69 mins

Noah Smith is a renaissance man, blogger, and commentator. Noah’s popular blog, Noahpinion, focuses on economics, technology, and current events. He was previously a columnist for Bloomberg and an assistant professor of Behavioral finance at Stony Brook University. Our wide-ranging conversation covers digital technology, economics, and energy. We discuss Noah’s framework for

Carlota Perez on technological revolutions and capitalism

Aug 07 2023 83 mins

Carlota Perez is a pre-eminent multi-disciplinarian, scholar, and author. Carlota studies the nature of technological change and economic systems, and the lessons provided by the history of technological revolutions. Her book, Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, is a landmark contribution to the study of technological innovation and change. She has received numerous aw

Clay Shirky on value generation, ChatGpt, and education

Jul 10 2023 71 mins

Clay Shirky is the Vice Provost of Educational Technologies at New York University and an associate professor at the New York University Tisch school of arts. He is a prominent thinker on the social and economic effects of the Internet and the Web. Clay has authored a number of books, including Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus. Our conversation with Clay gravitates ar

Matt Clancy on innovation, policy, and Progress Studies

Mar 13 2023 63 mins

Matt Clancy is a research fellow at Open Philanthropy and a senior fellow at The Institute for Progress, a think tank for accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress. He maintains New Things Under the Sun, a living literature review about innovation. Our conversation with Matt gravitates around the state of knowledge of technological innovation. We talk abou

Martin Gurri on the fifth wave, democracy, and technology

Feb 05 2023 76 mins

Martin Gurri is the visiting research fellow at Mercatus Center and a former CIA analyst. Martin’s core interests center around politics, information, and media. His book The Revolt of the Public received notoriety for its cogent analysis of the effects of information on political change. Our conversation with Martin centers around the societal and political implication

Brian Arthur on technology, software, and economic systems

Jun 27 2022 89 mins

Brian Arthur is a storied economist and complexity thinker. He is a pioneer in a number of disciplines including increasing returns, complexity economics, and the evolution of technology. Brian previously served on the science board and the board of trustees of Santa Fe Institute. He is one of the youngest endowed chair holders at Stanford University. Brian is also the

Alissa Cooper on building the internet

May 16 2022 57 mins

Alissa Cooper is the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Technology Policy and a Fellow at Cisco Systems. She is also currently a board member of the Tor Project. Alissa was chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an organization that develops and promotes voluntary open Internet standards, from 2017 to 2021. She previously served as chief computer scientis