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

In this interview, I speak to veteran science broadcaster and journalist Jay Ingram, author of twenty popular science titles, including the bestselling Science of Why series. In hiss latest book The Science of Pets, he researched the latest science behind our beloved furry, and not-so-furry, creatures that sleep on our…

 

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…

 

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,…

 

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…

 

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…

 

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…

 

In this interview I speak to Martin Dubin, a clinical psychologist, serial entrepreneur, business coach, and adviser to C-suite executives and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. He founded several companies, including a multimillion-dollar health care company where he also served as CEO. A former coach at the Center for Creative Leadership and…

 

In this interview I speak to Rich Hagberg, Ph.D., often referred to as “Silicon Valley’s CEO Whisperer.” Richard is a trained psychologist who has spent the last 40 years of his career as an executive management coach for over 6,000 executives. Since 2009 he has worked with companies like Tinder, Twitter,…

 

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…

 

Federico Faggin invented the technology which made the microprocessor possible His semiconductor memory technology was adopted by Intel, and the microprocessor revolution began. Federico went on to found a number of businesses- and was additionally responsible for the technology that makes the touchpads and touchscreens on our modern day devices…

 

Explore an archive of more than 3,000 quotes.

Influencers wield enormous influence, and sometimes, this can manifest negatively. The spread of anti-vaccination rhetoric, the reluctance to use sunscreen, and the rise of conspiracy theories like QAnon can be profoundly damaging.

Many great startup ideas fall into the 'sounds like a bad idea, is a good idea' category. In fact, most of them do. These are the most dangerous ideas—the ones that sound plausibly good but aren't. There was nobody desperate for a social network for sports fans, so it failed.

— Mike Maples Jr
Venture capitalist and early-stage investor, founder of Founders Fund

If you have a doctor who is very ready to find people as having heart disease, and thus overdiagnoses and overtreats them – that's a mistake, risks safety and wastes resources. Similarly, if you have a doctor down the hall who underdiagnoses, that endangers lives.

— Cass Sunstein
Legal Scholar & White House Office of Management & Budget Administrator

Building mental fitness is akin to being an elite athlete. It's not enough for the athletes just to have great technical skills, they need to be equally mentally prepared also.

Our brains are not so well equipped, we just tend to assume patterns that look connected are causally connected. So a conspiracy theory is just another causal theory – why did these things happen?

— Michael Shermer
Founder of The Skeptics Society & Science Communicator

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


The Wisdom Series

Ten in-depth articles distilling insights from over 550 interviews with the world's leading thinkers, creators, and changemakers.

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