Paul Collier on Regional Inequality and Economic Recovery

February 3rd, 2026 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
World-renowned development economist Paul Collier has spent his life working in neglected communities. In this interview, we discuss his new book Left Behind, where he offers his candid diagnosis of why some regions and countries are falling further behind, and a new vision for how they can catch up. In…

 

Ben Lamm on De-Extinction & Species Restoration

December 17th, 2025 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
In this interview I speak to Ben Lamm, the Co-Founder and CEO Of Colossal Biosciences (the world’s first de-extinction company) which he founded alongside world-renowned geneticist and serial biotech entrepreneur George Church, Ph.D. Colossal are the first business to apply CRISPR technology for the purposes of species de-extinction and work…

 

Superintelligent AI Mathematician: Carina Hong, Axiom

December 12th, 2025 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
Axiom is an AI company on a mission to build a self-improving, superintelligent reasoner, starting with an AI mathematician. The company launched out of stealth in 2024 with $64 million in seed funding at a $300 million valuation led by B Capital.  The Axiom team includes renowned AI and mathematics experts…

 

Rachel Botsman on Trust & Being Trusted

December 10th, 2025 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
In this interview I speak to Rachel Botsman- author, designer, and lecturer renowned for her work on trust and societal change. A leading expert in the field, she has written three influential books—What’s Mine Is Yours, Who Can You Trust?, and How to Trust & Be Trusted—translated into 14 languages. As a…

 

César Hidalgo on The Laws of Knowledge

September 16th, 2025 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
In this interview, I speak to Professor César A. Hidalgo, a physicist and global leader in the field of economic complexity. He leads the Center for Collective Learning at the Toulouse School of Economics and Corvinus University of Budapest, is the founder of DataWheel, and author of Why Information Grows.…

 

Gaming Strategy for Companies – Bastian Bergmann

September 15th, 2025 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
In this interview, I speak to Bastian Bergmann, the author of "Press Play - Why Every Company Needs a Gaming Strategy." Bastian is cofounder and Chief Operating Officer of Solsten, a technology startup that empowers companies to create personalised content using AI and psychological data. Among its customers are globally…

 

AI Safety: Controlling Humanity’s Most Important Invention

August 29th, 2025 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
In these conversations, I spoke with three of the world’s foremost thinkers on AI safety, risk & governance —Clark Barrett (Professor of Computer Science at Stanford and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for AI Safety), Nick Bostrom (Founder of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University and the Macrostrategy…

 

Social Status Effects on Society – Professor Toby E. Stuart

August 26th, 2025 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
In this interview I speak to one of the world’s foremost experts on social hierarchies, Toby E. Stuart. Professor Stuart is the Leo Helzel distinguished professor of business administration at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, and author of Anointed: The Extraordinary Effects of Social Status in a Winner-Take-Most World. He is…

 

Leadership with Retired Nuclear Submarine Captain L. David Marquet

August 1st, 2025 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
In this interview I speak to Captain L. David Marquet (U.S. Navy, Retired), a celebrated leadership visionary, bestselling author, and educator whose career-defining moment came during his command of the nuclear ballistic missile submarine USS Santa Fe (SSN‑763) from 1999 to 2001. We discuss his most important learnings on leadership, and how to build…