Ep518 - Ravi Bapna & Anindya Ghose | Thrive: Maximizing Well-Being in the Age of AI

Mel B visits Google to discuss her career journey, her memoir “Brutally Honest”, and her experiences as a person of mixed heritage. Melanie Brown is one-fifth of the most successful girl band on Earth, the Spice Girls. As ‘Scary Spice’, she became one of the most recognisable women in the world. She went on to carve out a global career as a television entertainer, theater performer, and movie actress. Since the Spice Girls split in 2000, Melanie went on to carve a new career as a host of television shows. Consistently voted ‘most popular’ judge on shows from America’s Got Talent to The X Factor UK, she embraced a whole new generation to become one of the most recognised faces on television. She has appeared in London’s West End and on Broadway in Rent and most recently as Roxie Hart in Chicago, winning massive acclaim from audiences. Mel B was awarded an MBE by the Queen for her services to survivors of domestic abuse. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.

13 Feb 20241h 3min

Nikole Hannah-Jones is an award-winning investigative reporter covering racial injustice for the New York Time Magazine. Nikole has spent the last five years investigating how official policy creates and maintains racial segregation in American public schools. In 2016, Nikole helped found the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, a training and mentorship organization geared towards increasing the number of investigative reporters of color. She has also authored a book that discusses school segregation entitled, "The Problem We All Live With.” In 2020, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her work on “The 1619 Project”. Originally published in May of 2017. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.

9 Feb 20241h 5min

Michael Smith visits Google to discuss his book “The Abundant University: Remaking Higher Education for a Digital World.” For too long, our system of higher education has been defined by scarcity: scarcity in enrollment, scarcity in instruction, and scarcity in credentials. In addition to failing students professionally, this system has exacerbated social injustice and socioeconomic stratification across the globe. In “The Abundant University”, Smith argues that the only way to create a financially and morally sustainable higher education system is by embracing digital technologies for enrolling, instructing, and credentialing students—the same technologies that we have seen create abundance in access to resources in industry after industry. “The Abundant University” explains how we got our current system, why it’s such an expensive, inefficient mess, and how a system based on exclusivity cannot foster inclusivity. Smith challenges the resistance to digital technologies that we have already seen among numerous institutions, citing the examples of faculty resistance toward digital learning platforms. While acknowledging the understandable self-preservation instinct of our current system of residential education, Smith makes a case for how technology can form greater educational opportunities and create changes that will benefit students, employers, and society as a whole. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.

6 Feb 202447min

Math is boring, says the mathematician and comedian Matt Parker. Part of the problem may be the way the subject is taught, but it's also true that we all, to a greater or lesser extent, find math difficult and counterintuitive. This counterintuitiveness is actually part of the point, argues Parker: the extraordinary thing about math is that it allows us to access logic and ideas beyond what our brains can instinctively do―through its logical tools, we are able to reach beyond our innate abilities and grasp more and more abstract concepts. In his book, “Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension”, Parker sets out to convince his readers to revisit the very math that put them off the subject as schoolchildren. Starting with the foundations of math familiar from school, he takes us on a grand tour, from four dimensional shapes, knot theory, the mysteries of prime numbers, optimization algorithms, and the math behind barcodes and iPhone screens to the different kinds of infinity―and slightly beyond. Originally published in December of 2014. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.

2 Feb 202448min

Andrew Keen visits Google to discuss his book “The Cult of the Amateur.” The book discusses the grave consequences of today’s new participatory internet and reveals how it threatens our values, economy, and ultimately the very innovation and creativity that forms the fabric of our societies. According to Keen, our most valued cultural institutions are being overtaken by an avalanche of amateur, user-generated free content. Keen claims that “cut-and-paste” online culture, in which intellectual property is freely swapped, downloaded, remashed, and aggregated, threatens over 200 years of copyright protection and intellectual property rights, preventing artists, authors, journalists, musicians, and producers from earning a decent living. In today’s self-broadcasting culture, where amateurism is celebrated and anyone with an opinion can publish a blog, post on YouTube, or change an entry on Wikipedia, the distinction between trained expert and uninformed amateur has become dangerously blurred. When anonymous bloggers and videographers can alter the public debate and manipulate public opinion, truth becomes a commodity to be bought, sold, packaged, and reinvented. The very anonymity that the Web 2.0 offers calls into question the reliability of the information we receive and creates an environment in which predators and identity thieves can roam free. Keen’s book urges us to consider the consequences of blindly supporting a culture that endorses plagiarism and piracy and that fundamentally weakens traditional media and creative institutions. Originally published in June of 2007. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.

30 Jan 20241h 2min

Ray Jackendoff visits Google to discuss "The Peculiar Logic of Value", which centers on how humans conceptualize systems of value.  Jackendoff hypothesizes that value is conceptualized as an abstract property attributed to objects, persons, and actions. There are several distinct types of value - Affective value, or “does it feel good or bad?” Utility, or “is it good for me?”; Prowess, or “is someone good at doing something”; Normative value, or “is it good of someone to do something?”; Personal Normative value, or “is someone a good person?”; and Esteem, or “does someone have a good reputation?”. Each of these kinds of value plays a different role in the ecology of our value systems. Ray Jackendoff is a Professor of Philosophy and the Codirector of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He is the author of many books, including "Foundations of Language”. Originally published in August of 2007. Visit Youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.

26 Jan 20241h

Lily Gladstone visits Google to discuss her journey, her career, and to celebrate Native American Heritage Month. Lily was raised on the Blackfeet Reservation in Northwestern Montana and is from the Blackfeet and Nez Perce Tribal Nations. Lily stars in Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed film “Killers Of The Flower Moon”, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro. Her breakout role in Kelly Reichardt's “Certain Women”, earned her multiple nominations, including Best Supporting Actress at the Independent Spirit Awards and Best Breakthrough Actor at the Gotham Awards. She was named Best Supporting Actress of 2016 by the Los Angeles Critics Film Association. She also appeared as ‘Hokti’ in Sterlin Harjo’s acclaimed FX series “Reservation Dogs” and will soon star in Samir Mehta and Quinn Shephard’s limited series “Under the Bridge.” Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.

23 Jan 202458min

Sri M is a spiritual guide, social reformer and educationist. His transformational journey – from a young boy to a living yogi – is a fascinating story. He recently completed a Walk of Hope – a 15 month long padayatra, or “walking on foot”, in 2016, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, spanning 7500 kilometers across 11 states of India for peace, harmony and tolerance. In his Talk, he describes his journey, learnings and gives practical techniques for Mindfulness. Originally published in November of 2016. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.

19 Jan 20241h 5min