Forbidden Conversations Katherine Brodsky

Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technology evangelist at Microsoft.

You can find him on X: @Scobleizer

His podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robert-scoble4

My guest, Emmanuel Maggiori (PhD), is a 10-year AI industry insider and author of the book Smart Until It's Dumb: Why artificial intelligence keeps making epic mistakes (and why the AI bubble will burst). He has developed AI for a wide variety of applications, from extracting objects from satellite images to packaging holiday deals for millions of travelers every day, working as a data scientist and software engineer for various clients.  After studying software engineering in Argentina, he completed his PhD at Inria, the French national IT research lab.

He joins me to discuss the dangers of AI and where it can excel. Is AI delivering on its promises? Is AI as good as we think it is? What can humans do better than AI? Do we need AI tools everywhere or are we putting it to use where it is not needed? Is there too much pressure to implement it everywhere? Is it overhyped? Should we be worried?

These days, wars aren’t merely fought on battlefields. The battle is also for public sentiment and perception. Whether we’re talking about government propaganda, or the massive spread of lies on an unprecedented scale due to speed of transmission—it is not something to be dismissed lightly.

On this episode of Forbidden Conversations, I talk to combat veteran and national security/military analyst, John Spencer about the state of modern warfare, Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, the situation in Israel, what “disproportionate response” really means, and the difficulty of fighting both mis and disinformation.

I also encourage you to read his insightful article for CNN about whether Israel is actually committing war crimes in Gaza.

John Spencer is an award-winning scholar, professor, author, combat veteran, national security and military analyst, and internationally recognized expert and advisor on urban warfare, military strategy, tactics, and other related topics. Considered one of the world’s leading expert on urban warfare, he served as an advisor to the top four-star general and other senior leaders in the U.S. Army as part of strategic research groups from the Pentagon to the United States Military Academy.

He is the author of three books: Understanding Urban Warfare, (Howgate Publishing, 2022), Connected Soldiers: Life, Leadership, and Social Connections in Modern War (Potomac Books, 2022), The Mini-Manual for the Urban Defender (John Spencer, 2022).

Spencer currently serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Co-Director of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project podcast. He serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies with the Madison Policy Forum, a New York based think-tank. He also serves as a Colonel in the California State Guard with assignment to the 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard as the Director of Urban Warfare Training. He is a founding member of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare.

You can find him on X at @SpencerGuard.

My guest, Gurwinder Bhogal, is a writer examining the intersection of psychology and technology. On this episode of Forbidden Conversations, we explore some of the ideas central to his work—namely—ways in which we tend to get fooled in the digital age. Why have we seemingly abandoned reason? Is the Internet really rotting our brain, or do we share that responsibility? We have more data available to us than ever before, but it isn’t necessarily making us more knowledgeable. And there’s few of us that have been able to avoid the Kruger-Dunning effect. Why is it that smart people believe false things? And why is it so difficult for many of us to change our minds?

Most importantly, what is the antidote?

After working in web development on projects like Microsoft Bing, Gurwinder left the tech industry to pursue a career as a freelance writer. His work has featured in UnHerd, Quillette, Areo, The Humanist, The Sunday Express, and on the blog of the counter-terrorism think-tank Quilliam. He also writes at 



Gurwinder gurwinder.substack.com and you can find him on Twitter.

Is freedom of speech really under attack? Are things getting worse? What is causing many people to be worried about too much free speech? Why are these issues of particular concern on campuses? Is cancel culture literally claiming lives?

There’s probably no better guest to tackle these questions (and many more) than Greg Lukianoff, attorney, New York Times best-selling author co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind with Jonathan Haidt, and the President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). Lukianoff is also the author of Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate, Freedom From Speech, and FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus. He is the Executive Producer of Can We Take a Joke? (2015), a feature-length documentary that explores the collision between comedy, censorship, and outrage culture, both on and off campus, and of Mighty Ira: A Civil Liberties Story (2020), an award-winning feature-length film about the life and career of former ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser.

He has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and numerous other publications. He’s also appeared on shows like CBS Evening News, The Today Show, and NPR’s Morning Edition. In 2008, he became the first-ever recipient of the Playboy Foundation’s Freedom of Expression Award, and he has testified before both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives about free speech issues on America’s college campuses.

His upcoming book (co-authored with Rikki Schlott), The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All—But There Is a Solution, is due to be released on October 17.

Follow him on Twitter at: @JonHaidt
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The FORBIDDEN CONVERSATIONS Podcast is a series that takes on topics that don't always get attention or are more challenging to tackle and seeks to address them through civil discourse and nuanced exploration. To view all episodes so far, visit here.

Want to listen only? Find us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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Find more essays and podcasts at: http://www.katherinewrites.com

My guest is on this episode of Forbidden Conversations is Adam B. Coleman. We speak about the increased radicalization in the world, hypocrisy, the state of journalism, how "culture wars" affect regular people, boycotts, the laptop class vs the working class, and more. Join us for a random conversation.

Adam is the author of Black Victim To Black Victor, op-ed writer, public speaker, and the founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. He is a columnist for Human Events, a frequent contributor for The New York Post & The Publica, and has articles published in Newsweek, The Federalist, The Epoch Times, Daily Mail, The Post Millennial, Unherd, ScoonTV, Free Black Thought, Life News HQ & Human Defense Initiative.

You can find him on Twitter & Instagram: @wrong_speak or on Facebook. You can read his musings on his own Substack.