The Escaped Sapiens Podcast

Jan 20 2025 82 ep. 97 mins 46
The Escaped Sapiens Podcast artwork

The Escaped Sapiens Podcast attempts to give an authentic and unedited voice to the researchers and explorers extending the boundaries of what is humanly possible.

  Science  Technology
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AI, Control, and the path to Dystopia | Pedro Domingos | Escaped Sapiens #78

Jan 20 2025 135 mins  
Will we ever have an AI for president? In this episode of the podcast I speak with Pedro Domingos about the impact of AI on society, industry, and politics. Pedro is professor emeritus of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington and co-founded the International Machine Learning Society. He is also the Author of `The Master Algorithm' and `2040: A Silicon Val

From Destruction to Regeneration: The Future of Economics | Kate Raworth | Escaped Sapiens #77

Jan 07 2025 77 mins  
In this conversation I speak with renegade economist and creator of doughnut economics Kate Raworth. Kate is a Senior Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, where she teaches on the Masters in Environmental Change and Management. She is also Professor of Practice at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. We speak about economic transformation, and re-

The Surprising Impact of Regenerative Farming | Joel Salatin | Escaped Sapiens #76

Dec 27 2024 108 mins  
This conversation is the second part of a two part mini-series on Regenerative cattle farming. The question is: Does raising cattle really have to be so damaging to the environment? Can cattle be integrated into a natural system that sequesters carbon from the atmosphere, and if so what would that system look like? Joel Salatin segregates his land into small fenced off areas, which

Regenerative Farming And Carbon Negative Beef | Will Harris | Escaped Sapiens #75

Dec 04 2024 101 mins  
In this conversation I speak with Will Harris, who is a fourth generation cattle farmer. Will originally ran a standard industrial farm, but increasingly became dissatisfied by the welfare of his animals. That started a journey to change the way his farm ran, and over the years he has converted his operation piece by piece into a regenerative farm. That means no more grain feed, no

What is Reality Made Of? Unscrambling the Quantum Omelet | Rob Spekkens | Escaped Sapiens #74

Nov 21 2024 124 mins  
In quantum mechanics the state of a physical system is described by a wavefunction, which provides information about the probabilities of various outcomes, such as finding a particle at a particular location in space. This differs dramatically from classical physics, where a particle is described by a definite position and momentum. As a result, quantum mechanics inherently involve

The Future of Protein: Breeding The Super Tuber | Padraic Flood | Escaped Sapiens #73

Sep 16 2024 118 mins  
Wheat, soy, corn, potatoes—did we really domesticate the best crops nature had to offer? In this episode of the podcast, I speak with geneticist Padraic J. Flood, who specializes in population and quantitative genetics. Padraic left academia and a position in vertical farming to pursue a dream: the domestication of the Aardaker.The Aardaker is a small, unassuming plant native to

The "Self" Is An Illusion | Thomas Metzinger | Escaped Sapiens #72

Aug 26 2024 93 mins  
In this episode I speak with Professor Thomas Metzinger about how our strong, consciously experienced subjectivity emerges out of objective events in the natural world. According to Thomas, no such things as selves really exist in the world: nobody ever had or was a self. All that exists are what he calls `phenomenal' selves which our brains fabricate. In this episode I try to unpa

Alcohol And The Birth Of Civilization | Edward Slingerland | Escaped Sapiens #71

Aug 19 2024 73 mins  
Why is alcohol use so widespread? The usual thinking is that despite its negative effects, alcohol is pleasurable and that is why we drink it. But this can't be the whole story because if alcohol is really so bad then cultures that prohibit drinking should dominate over those that like to drink, or you might think that a genetic mutation that makes drinking less pleasurable would s

Building A Theory Of Everything | Stephen Wolfram | Escaped Sapiens #70

Aug 02 2024 113 mins  
This is a conversation with Stephen Wolfram about his proposed theory of everything. Stephen is a British-American computer scientist, mathematician, physicist, and CEO of Wolfram Research. He also created Mathematica, and Wolfram|Alpha & Wolfram Language, and is the Author of 'A New Kind of Science' as well as a number of other books. Stephen's attempt to derive all of the law

Should We Deregulate Housing? | Bryan Caplan | Escaped Sapiens #69

Jun 25 2024 104 mins  
Housing regulation is often put in place for good reasons, namely comfort, safety, environmental protection, availability of utilities and services, and more. With each additional regulation, however, restrictions are being placed on what you can build, where you can build, and how quickly you can build it. Professor Bryan Caplan argues that our current mess of regulations dramatic