The Bigger Picture Roni Firon

In today’s episode, I spoke with John Vervaeke, professor of cognitive science at the University of Toronto and creator of the YouTube lecture series “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis”. 
In his brilliant 50-part series, John weaves together philosophy, the history of ideas, and cognitive science to explain why we collectively find ourselves today in a crisis of meaning. 
In our conversation, we spoke about the origins of the meaning crisis, its symptoms today and how modern health issues are connected, and the practices that we can integrate into our lives to regain meaning and enhance our capacity for insight. 

In today’s episode, I spoke with Ben Volkow, the CEO and Founder of Otonomo, a company that’s revolutionizing the world of car data. Otonomo offers the leading data platform and marketplace for sharing and utilizing vehicle data, with over 40 million connected cars and 4 billion data points. The opportunities are far-reaching for this unprecedented amount of car data, from traffic management and smart cities, to emergency services and smarter insurance policies. 
Ben was full of insights from his journey founding Otonomo and bringing the company to IPO at a 1.26 billion dollar valuation. 
We spoke all about his vision for Otonomo and how this kind of data can completely transform the way we drive, the way entire cities are planned, and much much more. 

In today’s episode, I spoke with Prof. Mark Solms, a psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist from South Africa who is well known for his groundbreaking research on the brain mechanisms of dreaming. Today we spoke about the unique field of neuropsychoanalysis, some of his earlier research showing why Freud was right about dreaming, and about his new book The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness. In his book, Mark brings forth a revolutionary theory of consciousness that returns emotions and feelings to the center of our mental lives.

In today’s episode, I spoke with David Schapiro, an expert in the insurtech space, who combines his silicon valley cowboy past with the old-school culture of the insurance industry.


David explains why we’re seeing the emergence of a great number of tech companies within the insurance space, and why this is just the tip of the iceberg. David has been involved in companies such as ClickSoftware, PLANCK, BoughtByMany, Sayata Labs, and Earnix.


We spoke about David’s experience in this space, his insights about insurtech specifically and entrepreneurship more generally, and about the track record we’re seeing of Israeli high-tech companies making a global splash and bringing innovation to the forefront.

In today’s conversation, I spoke with Micha Kaufman, founder and CEO of Fiverr. 
Fiverr has completely revolutionized the gig economy, making freelance work accessible for people all over the world. Fiverr simplifies the process of connecting freelancers with their customers, which allows freelancers to truly make a living from their work, and provides easy access for businesses large and small to highly skilled individuals. 
We spoke about where the idea for Fiverr came from, how the company looked in its early days, and what it took to make the Fiverr dream a reality. 
Micha shared his insights about what it takes to build a strong company culture and what values are important to cultivate in order to keep an ever-expanding company integrated and focused on the grander vision. 
Fiverr has opened so many doors for so many people around the world, and one of the things that were clear from our conversation was that at Fiverr, they never lose sight of the people they are serving. 

In today’s episode, I spoke with Prof. James Pennebaker, a social psychology professor from UT Austin. Needless to say, within the psychology community, Pennebaker is a well known name. 
James is a pioneer in the field of writing therapy, where he has explored how writing about a past trauma can help people recover, as well as how the language we use can indicate the state of our mental health.  
He then went on to explore how people use language differently. For instance, how gender and personality can affect the language we use. 
One of the surprising things that emerged from James’s research is that the biggest differences between people’s use of language are actually to be found in their use of pronouns - those little words that no one quite pays attention to. 
Interestingly enough, it’s precisely the way we use pronouns that can tell us a lot about who we are.