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

In this interview I speak to Dakota Ditcheva, mixed martial artist & PFL European flyweight champion. Hailing from Manchester, Dakota is one of the world’s most sought-after professional fighters, having risen to prominence as an amateur kickboxer and Muay Thai fighter, winning numerous championships in both disciplines, the pinnacle being…

 

In this conversation, I speak to Dr. Serge Brammertz, Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Trials. Dr. Brammertz is one of the world’s foremost experts on international criminal law, and we discuss the role & purpose of international courts, and the role of justice in…

 

In this interview, I speak to Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg, dubbed “the world’s leading megaproject expert.” We discuss the findings from his recent book How Big Things Get Done, and the tools, techniques, principles and models we can use to lead projects at all scales. He has 30 years of…

 

In this interview, I speak to Dr. Lloyd B. Minor, Dean of the Stanford School of Medicine & Co-Lead of Stanford Health, a $13 billion-dollar health enterprise comprising Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care & Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. We discuss how AI, computing and synthetic biology are transforming…

 

To better understand the laws of war & conflict, I speak to Sir Geoffrey Nice KC (Former Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, who led the prosecution of Slobodan Miloševic) and Professor William A Schabas OC (International Criminal & Human Rights Lawyer, who Served on the Truth & Reconciliation Commission…

 

In this conversation I speak to Professor David Feldman, Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism. David is one of the world’s foremost experts in Jewish history, antisemitism & radicalisation. We discuss the origins of antisemitism, the impact of WW2 and the Holocaust on antisemitic beliefs, and…

 

In this interview I speak to Patrick Mouratoglou, one of the most successful tennis coaches in history. Patrick has worked with players including Serena Williams & Simona Halep and has coached 40 players to reach top 100 rankings, including 10 Grand Slam titles & 2 Olympic Medals. We discuss the…

 

In this interview, I speak to Malcolm Gladwell. We discuss success, creativity, intuition, legacy, and adversity together with the importance of broadening our intellectual horizons to better understand our world, and ourselves. Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers — The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What…

 

In this interview I speak to Abhijit Dubey, Global CEO of NTT Ltd. We discuss how he’s combining Silicon Valley and traditional Japanese leadership styles to bring together 39 companies in a $30bn merger process. We also look at the importance of leadership learning, and how to successfully lead environmental…

 

The average human lifespan is absurdly, outrageously, insultingly brief: if you live to 80, you have about four thousand weeks on earth. How should we use them best? Oliver Burkeman is author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, and a columnist. In his new book…

 

Explore an archive of more than 3,000 quotes.

We must stand up and say that a business model based on secretly tracking us in order to find, and exploit, weaknesses in our attention is not acceptable. It's immoral.

— Johann Hari
Journalist and author known for books on addiction and depression

Music is something that affects your senses in a way that nothing else really can- it's like a time-travel portal! You can listen to something and it transports back to that place… that bar… that nightclub… that time with your friends….

— Sophie Ellis-Bextor
British Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist

It's inevitable for complex animals. Some simple animals avoid aging by exporting absolutely all the entropy they create, but that's because they don't contain any material that stays in place unrecycled. Basically, if an animal has any organs that rely for their function on being built out of long-lived cells (like our brains, for example), it's going to age.

— Aubrey de Grey
Biogerontologist researching aging reversal and life extension therapies

I've always been self-taught, sort of like the Grandma Moses of acting. If I'd gone to drama school, I would probably have had a very different career- perhaps not as much fun in some ways.

— Sam Neill
Actor best known for Jurassic Park and The Piano films

Instead of worrying about powerful artificial intelligences in the future, we should be concerned about the lack of intelligence in the Oval Office today!

— Garry Kasparov
World Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism

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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.

The Wisdom of Leadership The Wisdom of Entrepreneurship The Wisdom of Creativity The Wisdom of Technology The Wisdom of Meaning The Wisdom of the Mind The Wisdom of Justice The Wisdom of Science The Wisdom of Geopolitics The Wisdom of Health
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