Thoughts in Between: exploring how technology collides with politics, culture and society
42 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsMatt Clifford, co-founder of Entrepreneur First, interviews the people behind some of the world's most important ideas. We explore in-depth some of the fastest-changing and most impactful areas of life, from technology to geopolitics and scientific progress to entrepreneurship. Guests include founders, investors, academics and journalists working and thinking at the frontier of these topics. Subscribe to the free newsletter at http://tib.matthewclifford.com/
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Episodes
Rohit Krishnan and Visa Veerasamy on Talent and Ambition
February 08, 2023 07:00 - 2 hours - 174 MBRohit Krishnan is an investor and writer; he is the author of Strange Loop Canon (he was previously on the podcast here). Visa Veerasamy is the author of Introspect and Friendly Ambitious Nerd, among other things. In this conversation we talk about whether entrepreneurs are born or made; the role of culture in ambition; how we can make people more ambitious and much more. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrep...
Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha: The Startup of You
July 31, 2022 07:00 - 54 minutes - 37.3 MBReid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha are the co-authors of The Startup of You, which explores how to adapt, take risks, grow your network and transform your career. Reid was co-founder of LinkedIn and a partner at Greylock. He sits on the boards of a number of organisations including Microsoft, OpenAI and, of course, my company Entrepreneur First. Ben is an investor, entrepreneur and writer and is one of the founders of Village Global, a venture capital firm. As well as their book, which I rec...
Iason Gabriel: Artificial intelligence and moral philosophy
July 11, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 134 MBIason Gabriel is a research scientist at DeepMind and was previously a lecturer in political and moral philosophy at Oxford University. His work focuses on the moral questions raised by artificial intelligence. In this conversation we discuss how and why AI is different from other technologies; the problem of value alignment in AI; what political philosophy can tell us about how to build ethical AI systems; and much more. Iason's paper on value alignment that we discuss is here. In th...
Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross: Talent - How to identify winners around the world
May 16, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 149 MBTyler Cowen and Daniel Gross are the authors of a new book, Talent: How to identify energisers, creatives and winners around the world. Tyler is an economist, who is perhaps best known for his daily blogging at Marginal Revolution (which I've been reading since 2003!) and as the founder of Emergent Ventures, a grant-making programme focused on ambitious young people. Daniel is a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and investor, perhaps best known as the founder of Cue, a search engine, an...
Kyla Scanlon: How the internet is changing finance, economics and everything else
May 09, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 134 MBKyla Scanlon is a creator and educator who focuses on explaining finance and economics through her newsletter, YouTube and TikTok videos. She has a unique perspective on how the internet continues to change everything around us. In this conversation we discuss social media and the authentic self; Elon Musk, Twitter and free speech; memes as an investment strategy; the future of the dollar as a global reserve currency and much more. Enjoy this conversation with Kyla Scanlon. You can subs...
Stuart Buck: Making science funding work better
April 18, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 141 MBStuart Buck is the Executive Director of the Good Science Project, a new initiative to make science funding more effective, innovative, and robust. This mission has been the major theme of Stuart’s career; he was previously Vice President of Research at Arnold Ventures, a large philanthropic foundation. In this conversation, we discuss the twin problems of reproducibility and innovation in science, and whether they’re in tension. We talk about whether and why most published research fin...
Tanya Filer: Making technology serve the public good
April 04, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 140 MBTanya is an academic and entrepreneur. She leads the Digital State project at Cambridge University's Bennett Institute and is the founder of StateUp, an advisory firm focused on innovation that serves a public purpose. In this conversation, we talk about the idea of "public purpose technology", the companies that are building it and the investors that are funding it. We talk through the challenges of building for the public sector - from procurement to fundraising - as well as the big o...
Nadia Eghbal: Silicon Valley and the future of philanthropy
March 21, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 154 MBNadia Eghbal is an independent researcher and writer. She’s the author of Working in Public, which is an ethnographic study of how Open Source Software is made and maintained. She recently won an Emergent Ventures grant to study and write about technology wealth and philanthropy. In this conversation, we discuss how and why technology entrepreneurs think differently about philanthropy, what this means for the funding of science, how crypto is changing this space and much more. Enjoy thi...
Shashank Joshi: Ukraine - how we got here and what next?
February 28, 2022 07:00 - 55 minutes - 76.4 MBShashank Joshi is defence editor at the Economist. Long-time listeners may remember our conversation last year on geopolitics and security. Shashank joins me again today for a special edition on the situation in Ukraine. Shashank talks us through how we got here, what Putin wants, and some of the possible endgames. I should emphasise that we recorded this first thing Friday morning UK time and it’s an extremely fast-moving situation, so we tried to focus on topics that wouldn’t be compl...
Sam Arbesman: Science, institutional innovation and long term thinking
February 21, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 131 MBSam Arbesman is a complexity scientist and writer and is currently a scientist-in-residence at Lux Capital, a leading venture capital fund. Sam’s writing covers many topics that will be familiar to Thoughts in Between readers and listeners. In this conversation, we discuss the need for institutional innovation in science, the value of long-term thinking, the value of historical literacy in technology, and much more. Enjoy this conversation with Sam Arbesman. ----------------- Thanks to...
Sebastian Mallaby: What is venture capital good for?
February 07, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 149 MBSebastian Mallaby is a journalist and author. His latest book, The Power Law, is an exploration of the history and impact of venture capital that seeks to explain how VCs see the world and why it matters. In this conversation, we discuss why VC is so different from any other asset class, why VC networks should be considered a third core institution of capitalism alongside firms and markets, and whether VC has a positive impact in the world. You can order the Power Law here. -----------...
Allister Furey: Creating a ratings agency for the net zero economy
January 24, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 129 MBAllister Furey is co-founder and CEO of Sylvera, a technology startup building a ratings agency for carbon markets. In this conversation, we discuss why evaluation and verification is so important for building a net-zero economy and the challenges that face innovators and investors in today's market. We talk through how Sylvera creates ratings for carbon projects and why this might be the key to unlocking trillions of dollars of investment for carbon offset and removal initiatives (Alli...
Rohit Krishnan: Talent, cities, companies and billionaires
December 06, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 173 MBRohit Krishna is a venture capitalist and the writer behind Strange Loop Canon, one of my favourite Substacks (and one that regular readers of the TiB newsletter may recognise). In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about how billionaires can be better at philanthropy, why identifying extreme talent is so challenging, new ways to invest in talent, why cities tend to last so much longer than companies, and much more. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and pro...
Michelle You: Making markets in carbon removal
November 22, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 117 MBMichelle You is co-founder and CEO of Supercritical, a startup that helps companies achieve Net Zero through carbon removal. Michelle is a serial entrepreneur (she was previously one of the founders of Songkick) and in this conversation, we dive into why she decided to focus on carbon removal for her next company. We also explore why the label Net Zero can be misleading, the challenges of creating new markets in carbon, and which carbon removal technologies she’s most excited about. --...
Christian Hernandez: What can venture capital do about the climate crisis?
November 08, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 154 MBChristian Hernandez is one of the founding partners of 2150, a venture capital firm dedicated to backing startups that are reinventing how cities are built, run, and maintained - with a particular focus on sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. In this conversation, we talk about the role that venture capital and startups have to play in addressing the climate crisis. We discuss the most promising areas where startups can make a difference, why climate change is a national securi...
Tony Kulesa: The founder revolution in biotech
October 25, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 148 MBTony Kulesa is one of the founders of Petri, a new approach for funding formation stage startups at the intersection of biology and engineering. We spend a lot of this conversation talking about why there is such an explosion of activity in biotech entrepreneurship today and why new models for supporting and financing founders are needed. Regular readers of the Thoughts in Between newsletter may also remember that we recently discussed Tony’s excellent essay on Tyler Cowen’ and talent c...
Jason Crawford: What is progress and how do we get more of it?
October 11, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 163 MBJason Crawford is the founder of Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. Jason is a prolific writer on the history of science and technology and is one of the leading figures in the Progress Studies community. In this conversation, we discuss what causes progress; why it's not universally popular; what the history of bicycle tells us about why advances in technology sometimes take so long; why the future people imagined...
Azeem Azhar: Navigating the Exponential Age
September 27, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 163 MBAzeem Azhar is an entrepreneur, investor, and the creator of Exponential View - a newsletter and community dedicated to understanding the future. He's the author of the new book, Exponential, which explores how accelerating technology is changing our world faster than our institutions are designed to react. In this conversation, we discuss some of the big ideas in the book, from the emergence of superstar corporations to the future of work and cities. I highly recommend the book, which ...
Ilan Gur: Empowering scientists to maximise their impact in the world
September 13, 2021 09:00 - 1 hour - 160 MBIlan is CEO of Activate, a non-profit fellowship that enables entrepreneurial scientists to transform their research into world-changing deep tech products and businesses. There are lots of parallels between my day job at Entrepreneur First and what Ilan is building at Activate, so it was great to explorie what we’ve both learned in this conversation. Unlike EF, Activate is focused on science that is going to take a long time, often at least a couple of years, before it’s ready for even...
Ilan Gur: How to incubate *really* deep tech startups
September 13, 2021 08:00 - 58 minutes - 40 MBIlan is CEO of Activate, a non-profit fellowship that enables entrepreneurial scientists to transform their research into world-changing deep tech products and businesses. There are lots of parallels between my day job at Entrepreneur First and what Ilan is building at Activate, so it was great to explorie what we’ve both learned in this conversation. Unlike EF, Activate is focused on science that is going to take a long time, often at least a couple of years, before it’s ready for even the ...
Jess Whittlestone & Jack Clark: What Governments should do about AI
August 31, 2021 06:00 - 1 hour - 148 MBMy guests today are Jess Whittlestone and Jack Clark. Jess is a senior research associate at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Existential Risk. Jack is a co-founder of Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, and was previously Policy Director at OpenAI. Together they are co-authors on a new paper on why and how governments should monitor AI deployment, which you can read here. In this conversation, we discuss the paper and the ways in which governments need to act not to...
The Entrepreneur First Podcast: Building billion dollar companies
August 27, 2021 06:00 - 1 hour - 89.6 MBI'd like to introduce you to The Entrepreneur First Podcast, my new show with EF co-founder Alice Bentinck. Together, we've been talking to some of the brightest entrepreneurs who have ever set foot in an EF office about what it takes to build a business from the ground up. In this episode I speak to Alex Dalyac, co-founder and CEO of Tractable, EF's first unicorn. We're joined by LinkedIn's co-founder and Chairman, Reid Hoffman. Reid and Alex share what they believe are the most imp...
Ethan Mollick: what do we *actually* know about entrepreneurship?
August 16, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 150 MBEthan Mollick is a professor of entrepreneurship at Wharton, a former founder and author of the book, The Unicorn’s Shadow. Readers of the Thoughts in Between newsletter may also recognise him as the curator of perhaps the world’s most interesting Twitter feed. I think I link to Ethan more than to anyone else. In this conversation, we dive deeply into what the academic literature tells us about entrepreneurship. It’s the first time either of us have ever met, so during the conversation,...
Gian Volpicelli: a beginner's guide to cryptocurrency
July 26, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 173 MBGian Volpicelli is a journalist at Wired UK, where he covers the intersection of technology and politics. He’s also the author of the recently published Wired Guide to Cryptocurrency, which you can think of as a beginner’s guide to all things crypto. This conversation is for people who are new to crypto and feared it was too late to learn. We talk through the economics, politics, and sociology of cryptocurrency - and why you should care. Some of the links we discuss include: - The Bitc...
Jeff Ding: What's happening in Chinese AI?
July 12, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 148 MBJeffrey Ding is a doctoral candidate and Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he also works as the China Lead for the Centre for the Governance of AI. He’s one of the foremost English language commentators on AI in China and is the writer of the brilliant ChinAI newsletter, which is an invaluable guide to the topic. In this conversation we discuss recent developments in Chinese AI, including talent, funding and technical breakthroughs, as well as looking at Jeff’s academic ...
Gena Gorlin: Psychology, founders and the nature of ambition
June 28, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 164 MBGena Gorlin is a professor and practicing psychologist. Both her academic and her clinical work focuses on how individuals can overcome psychological obstacles to achieve goals. She’s become especially interested in working with ambitious innovators, particularly startup founders. Over the last few months, I’ve been lucky to work with Gena on a major project in my day job at Entrepreneur First and I thought that her observations would be interesting to a broader audience. In this conver...
Meia Nouwens: Taiwan, AI and China's relationship with the world
June 14, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 160 MBMeia Nouwens is a China expert who works as a senior fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies. She’s thought deeply and written extensively on many favorite Thoughts in Between topics, from the geopolitics of semiconductors to the role of AI in the future of war. In this conversation, we discuss China’s Digital Silk Road, the likelihood of war in Taiwan, and much more. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more...
Future Proof: How to save the world from catastrophic risks
June 07, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 136 MBAngus Mercer, Sophie Dannreuther and Gregory Lewis are three of the people behind, “Future Proof”, a report released last week by the Centre for Long Term Resilience on how the UK and the world can become more resilient to extreme risks in the decades ahead. In the wake of the pandemic, thinking about how we mitigate catastrophic risk seems both urgent and important. In this conversation, we discuss the most important steps governments can take, with a particular focus on biosecurity. I...
Ash Fontana: How to build an AI-first company
May 31, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 173 MBAsh Fontana is Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on artificial intelligence startups. He’s also the author of The AI First Company, a new book that draws on Ash’s experience as an entrepreneur and investor and lays out the principles for building a successful business based on data learning effects. In this conversation, we dive into the book’s core ideas and discuss the past, present and future of AI. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition fo...
Shashank Joshi: China, Russia and the world's biggest security risks
May 17, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 181 MBShashank Joshi is defence editor at the Economist and an expert in international security, geopolitics, and military affairs. I’ve known Shashank for many years and I think he has the most encyclopedic knowledge of anyone I’ve met. As a result, this is an extremely wide-ranging and, for me, educational conversation, in which we cover topics including why Vladimir Putin behaves the way he does, how spies get by in the age of ubiquitous digital surveillance, the world’s most underrated se...
Erik Hoel: The search for a theory of consciousness in reality and fiction
May 03, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 171 MBErik Hoel is a neuroscientist whose work we’ve discussed in Thoughts in Between before. But he’s also an excellent writer of fiction: his first novel, The Revelations, has just been published in the US and is available in the UK from 13 May 2021. It’s a brilliant novel of ideas centered on the search for a theory of consciousness. It’s one of the best things I’ve read this year and this discussion is a spoiler-free introduction to some of its big themes: the sociology of science, the na...
Alice Bentinck: Talent, innovation and institution building
April 19, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 175 MBAlice Bentinck is co-founder of Entrepreneur First (EF), the world's leading talent investor. I've worked with Alice for nearly a decade and she is one of the deepest thinkers about talent and innovation I know. In this conversation, we talk about lessons from building EF through the lens of some of TiB's favorite themes. We discuss how to identify great founders, the consequences of the pandemic for innovation, institution building, and lots more. ---------------- Thanks to Cofruiti...
Samo Burja: Great Founders and where great institutions come from
April 05, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 170 MBSamo Burja is founder of Bismarck Analytics and the author of Great Founder Theory, a manuscript that looks at how institutions and civilisations succeed and fail. It’s one of the most interesting things I’ve read this year and in this conversation we dive into its main themes. We discuss where great institutions come from, why there are so few of them, and what we need to do to build more. ---------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn m...
Steve O'Hear: The future of European tech
March 22, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 186 MBSteve O’Hear is a writer at Techcrunch and one of Europe’s leading technology journalists. He’s also, as he likes to put it, a “recovering founder”. In this conversation, we discuss consumer internet innovation in lockdown, the relationship between the media and the technology industry, the prospects for the European startup ecosystem, and how to think about privilege and inclusion in tech. --------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn mo...
Sarah Drinkwater: How to build a responsible tech industry
March 08, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 152 MBSarah Drinkwater is Director of Beneficial Tech at Omidyar Network, where she works on creating levers for a responsible tech industry. She’s one of the most thoughtful and optimistic people I know on the challenges of making technology a force for good in the world. In this conversation talk we cover a lot of ground: responsible technology, the trade-offs of scale, the role of talent in regulating Big Tech, and much more. ---------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and pr...
Anton Howes: The history of innovation - and how to get more of it
February 22, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 180 MBAnton Howes is a historian of innovation. He writes a newsletter on the topic, Age of Invention, and is the author of Arts and Minds (Princeton University Press, 2020), a history of the Royal Society of Arts. In this conversation we discuss: Where does innovation come from? The importance of "the improving mindset" in the history of economic growth Why it feels like progress is slowing down and why that's wrong. And much more. ---------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting ...
Rowland Manthorpe: Technology and the fight against COVID
February 08, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 164 MBRowland is a technology correspondent at Sky News where he covers the way technology impacts politics and public life, most recently in the fight against Covid-19. As well as this, we also talk about why it's so hard for governments to deploy capital well, and the relative merits of technocracy and populism. ---------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newslette...
Marc Warner: How do we make AI safe?
January 28, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 183 MBMarc Warner is co-founder and CEO of Faculty.AI, a London-based artificial intelligence company that helps leading organisations implement AI in their businesses. In this conversation, we talk about implementing machine learning in the real world and how to make AI safe and effective. We talk about bias and fairness in AI applications and frameworks for ensuring AI is a force for good. ---------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more a...
Jade Leung: What does history tell us about the future of AI?
January 21, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 183 MBJade was the first Head of Research & Partnerships with the Centre for the Governance of Artificial Intelligence (GovAI), housed at Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute. In this conversation, we discuss her superb doctoral thesis, "Who Will Govern Artificial Intelligence?" and look at what the history of emerging technologies tells us about the future of AI. We cover the role and power of talent; the part that the EU can play; and why AI is a great cause area for effective altruists. ...
Anna Gat: Being an intellectual in the internet age
January 14, 2021 07:00 - 2 hours - 167 MBAnna Gat is co-founder and CEO of Interintellect, a global community of public intellectuals. In this conversation, we discuss how the internet has changed intellectual life, the future of academia, and much more... ---------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com
Ian Hogarth: The geopolitics of AI
January 11, 2021 14:00 - 2 hours - 173 MBIan Hogarth is an entrepreneur, investor and public intellectual - well known as the author of "AI nationalism" and co-creator of the State of AI report. In this conversation, we talk about the geopolitics of AI: how does AI change the way that nation states compete and how do we avoid a dangerous race to the bottom dynamic? We also look at the state of the art in machine learning and explore how Ian thinks about AI as an investment thesis. ---------------- Thanks to Cofruition for ...
Introducing the Thoughts in Between Podcast
January 07, 2021 17:00 - 5 minutes - 6.88 MBHello, and welcome to the Thoughts in Between podcast. I’m Matt Clifford, co-founder of Entrepreneur First and writer of the Thoughts in Between newsletter. My big obsession in life is understanding how the world is changing. That’s why I started Entrepreneur First, where we help the world’s most ambitious people find co-founders and build technology companies from scratch. And it’s also why I started writing the Thoughts in Between newsletter - to explore what I see as the world’s m...