Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL Interviews the world's leading thinkers, and the people shaping the century.

Jody Michael on Transformational Leadership & Leading Lightly

September 13th, 2022 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
Jody Michael is one of the world’s top leadership coaches. She’s an internationally credentialed Master Certified Coach, Board Certified Coach, University of Chicago trained psychotherapist, and Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She has delivered over 40,000 hours of coaching over the last 25 years, including 15 years working in corporate leadership…

 

Dandapani on Unwavering Focus: Hindu Priest & Former Monk

September 13th, 2022 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
Dandapani is a Hindu priest, entrepreneur and a former monk of 10 years. After graduating university with a degree in Electrical Engineering he left it all behind to become a Hindu monk under the guidance of one of Hinduism’s foremost spiritual leaders of our time, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. For 10 years…

 

Mary Bekhait on Leading Global Talent & Creative Business

September 13th, 2022 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
Mary Bekhait is one of the most powerful figureheads in the global entertainment industry. As Chief Executive of YMU Group, she leads an international business representing household name clients across music, sport, entertainment, literary, social, art and business management. In this interview, I speak to Mary Bekhait about the secrets…

 

Getting Along: Working with Difficult People

September 4th, 2022 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
Work relationships can be hard. The stress of dealing with difficult people dampens our creativity and productivity, degrades our ability to think clearly and make sound decisions, and causes us to disengage. We might lie awake at night worrying, withdraw from work, or react in ways we later regret—rolling our…

 

Dame Stephanie Shirley: Computing Pioneer & Philanthropist

August 26th, 2022 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
Dame Stephanie Shirley CH, also known as Steve, is a workplace revolutionary and successful IT entrepreneur turned ardent venture philanthropist. At 88 years old, her story has many strands which, woven together, have produced a lifetime of exceptional achievements. Dame Stephanie’s story begins with her 1939 arrival in Britain as…

 

Melissa Daimler on Designing Company Culture

July 18th, 2022 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
In ReCulturing: Design Your Company Culture to Connect with Strategy and Purpose for Lasting Success, Melissa Daimler, Chief Learning Officer of Udemy, argues that it’s crucial to take a systems approach to culture – one focused on behaviours, processes and practices – and integrate it with the company’s purpose and…

 

What Apes Teach Us About Gender | Frans de Waal

July 18th, 2022 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
How different are the sexes? Is gender uniquely human? Where does gender identity originate? Frans de Waal is a distinguished primatologist. He has spent nearly half a century working with and studying primates. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on primate behaviour, and the links…

 

The Upside of Uncertainty: Nathan & Susannah Furr

July 18th, 2022 · by Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL
In The Upside of Uncertainty, INSEAD professor Nathan Furr and entrepreneur Susannah Harmon Furr provide a sweeping guide to embracing uncertainty and transforming it into a force for good. Drawing from hundreds of interviews, along with pioneering research in psychology, innovation, and behavioural economics, Nathan and Susannah provide dozens of…

 

All Interviews  (601)
What if computing's next leap came not from faster chips, but from living cells? In this interview I speak to Cortical Labs founder Hon Weng Chong, who reveals how neurons grown in a lab are opening a new era of biological intelligence — one shaped by millions of years of…
Cognitive decline isn't inevitable — it's a choice we make without realising it. Neuroscientist Dr. Tommy Wood reveals how the brain responds to what we demand of it, why dementia is largely preventable, and why AI may be the biggest threat to our minds yet. Read this before you outsource…
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…
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…
Business & Economics  (354)
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…
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…
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…
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…
Culture, Society, Sports & Arts  (231)
In this interview, I speak to Professor Paul Eastwick, Professor of Psychology at UC Davis, where he serves as head of the Social-Personality Psychology program and director of the Attraction and Relationships Research Laboratory. He has published over one hundred scientific articles and chapters, and his research has been featured…
In this interview, I speak to Daniel J. Levitin- an award-winning neuroscientist, musician, and best-selling author. His research encompasses music, the brain, health, productivity, and creativity. He is the author of four New York Times bestselling books: This Is Your Brain On Music, The World in Six Songs, The Organized…
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…
In this interview I speak to Professor Harvey Whitehouse, one of the world’s foremost anthropologists- whose research focuses on the evolution of social complexity. Harvey is one of the founders of the cognitive science of religion and has spent decades studying how beliefs and rituals have shaped, and reshaped human…
Health & Medicine  (71)
What if computing's next leap came not from faster chips, but from living cells? In this interview I speak to Cortical Labs founder Hon Weng Chong, who reveals how neurons grown in a lab are opening a new era of biological intelligence — one shaped by millions of years of…
Cognitive decline isn't inevitable — it's a choice we make without realising it. Neuroscientist Dr. Tommy Wood reveals how the brain responds to what we demand of it, why dementia is largely preventable, and why AI may be the biggest threat to our minds yet. Read this before you outsource…
In this interview I speak to Andrew Gallimore, a neurobiologist, chemist, pharmacologist, and writer interested in the relationship between psychedelic drugs, the brain, consciousness and the structure of reality. His collaboration with Dr Rick Strassman on extended state DMT pharmacokinetic model and first book “Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies…
Dr. Russell Kennedy—known to many as The Anxiety MD—is a physician, neuroscientist, and leading voice on the emotional and physiological roots of anxiety. Drawing on his own lived experience with childhood trauma and years of clinical practice, Kennedy has developed a unique mind–body approach to healing, blending neuroscience, developmental psychology,…
Nobel Laureates  (20)
Human rights activist and recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, Nadia Murad is a leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, is a harrowing account of the…
In Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement, Nobel Prize Winner, Daniel Kahneman together with co-authors Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein show how noise helps produce errors in many fields, including medicine, law, public health, economic forecasting, food safety, forensic science, bail verdicts, child protection, strategy, performance reviews and personnel…
In 2008, during the turbulence of a global financial crisis, a person (or group) called Satoshi Nakamoto released a white-paper called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. The principle was simple but revolutionary- a technique to record digital transactions in a way that was public, permanent and verifiable without requiring…
Dr. Mario Capecchi has had a remarkable life. At four-and-a-half years old, during World War II, his mother was sent to Dachau concentration camp leading-eventually- to Mario living as a street child for nearly four years, coming in and out of orphanages and almost dying of malnutrition. From this hugely…
Politics & Policy  (164)
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…
Why did France lose to the Nazis, despite its defenders having more tanks, troops, and guns? How did Ukraine repel Russia’s initial onslaught? How do you know if you can trust an ally? How can we make clearer decisions under pressure? In this interview I speak to Dr. Nicholas Wright,…
Sir Nick Clegg is the former UK Deputy Prime Minister (2010-2015) and former President, Global Affairs at Meta (2018-2025). Prior to being elected to the UK Parliament in 2005, he worked in the European Commission and served for five years as a member of the European Parliament. He became leader…
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.…
Science & Technology  (129)
What if computing's next leap came not from faster chips, but from living cells? In this interview I speak to Cortical Labs founder Hon Weng Chong, who reveals how neurons grown in a lab are opening a new era of biological intelligence — one shaped by millions of years of…
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…
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…
Sir Nick Clegg is the former UK Deputy Prime Minister (2010-2015) and former President, Global Affairs at Meta (2018-2025). Prior to being elected to the UK Parliament in 2005, he worked in the European Commission and served for five years as a member of the European Parliament. He became leader…

Long-form Interviews with the World's Leading Thinkers — Thought Economics