Brave New World -- hosted by Vasant Dhar

Data Governance Network

Brave New World is a look into the transformation of humanity by machines in the post-COVID era. It examines a wide range of topics around how technology and "virtualization" of our lives is impacting work, health, faith, emotional well being, government, democracy, and freedom. It is hosted by AI-pioneer Vasant Dhar.

  1. FEB 12

    Ep 103: Jayant Sinha on AI Governance In A Fragmented World

    AI is reshaping national power and governance. Drawing on India's digital public infrastructure, Jayant Sinha and Vasant Dhar discuss innovation and sovereignty over compute, data consent and privacy by design in Episode 103 of Brave New World. Useful Resources: 1. Jayant Sinha 2. Eversource Capital 3. India's Green Startups: Jayant Sinha and Sandeep Bhammer 4. Nandan Nilekani 5. Brave New World Episode 15: Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet 6. Brave New World Episode 50: Pramod Varma on India's Digital Empowerment 7. iSpirit 8. Unique Identification Authority Of India 9. Unified Payments Interface 10. M-Pesa 11. DigiYatra. 12. Australia has banned social media for kids under 16. 13. Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture, DEPA 14. Paul Gruenwald, Global Chief Economist, S&P Global 15. Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, James A. Robinson. 16. Neeraj Chopra 17. Thinking with Machines, The Brave New World of AI: Vasant Dhar 18. Battery Smart 19. Nutrifresh 20. Zero Cow 21. RevFin 22. Upside Foods 23. Brave New World Episode 93: Uma Valeti on Cultivating Meat 24. Brave New World Episode 101: Deepak Chopra On Consciousness and Reality 25. Geoffrey Hinton 26. Asimov's Laws 27. Jonathan Haidt 28. The Anxious Generation: Jonathan Haidt Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Order Vasant Dhar's new book, Thinking With Machines

    1h 11m

  2. JAN 8

    Ep 102 - Alex 'Sandy' Pentland on Humanizing Technology

    Professor Alex 'Sandy' Pentland, one of the most renowned computational scientists in the world, joins Vasant Dhar in Episode 102 of Brave New World to discuss the state and development of human-centric AI. Useful Resources: 1. Alex 'Sandy' Pentland. 2. Stanford Research Institute. 3. MIT Media Lab. 4. Distributed Computing, Blockchain. 5. Nature Magazine, Nature Machine Intelligence. 6. The Hard Problem Of Consciousness. 7. Shared Wisdom: Cultural Evolution In The Age Of AI: Alex Pentland. 8. Brave New World Episode 101: Deepak Chopra On Consciousness and Reality. 9. Digital Dharma: How AI Can Elevate Spiritual Intelligence and Personal Well-Being - Deepak Chopra. 10. Awakening: The Path to Freedom and Enlightenment - Deepak Chopra. 11. Sharing The Wisdom Of Time: Pope Francis. 12. UN, Sustainable Development Goals. 13. Jonathan Haidt. 14. Brave New World Episode 08: Jonathan Haidt, How Social Media Threatens Society. 15. Daniel Kahneman, Behavioural Economics. 16. Brave New World Episode 21: Daniel Kahneman, How Noise Hampers Judgement. 17. Loyal Agents. 18. Loyal Agents Consumer Reports 19. EU - AI Act. 20. Duty Of Care. 21. Internet Engineering Task Force. 22. World Trade Organisation.   Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Order Vasan Dhar's new book, Thinking With Machines   Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Order Vasan Dhar's new book, Thinking With Machines

    54 min

  3. 12/11/2025

    Ep 101: Deepak Chopra On Consciousness and Reality

    Useful Resources: 1. Deepak Chopra 2. Donald D. Hoffman 3. Awakening: The Path to Freedom and Enlightenment - Deepak Chopra 4. Seymour Reichlin 5. Digital Dharma: How AI Can Elevate Spiritual Intelligence and Personal Wellbeing - Deepak Chopra 6. The Hard Problem Of Consciousness 7. Rosalyn Yalow 8. Neuropeptides 9. Psychoneuroimmunology 10. Candace Pert 11. Molecules of Emotion - Candace Pert 12. Richard Dawkins 13. The Physics of Consciousness - Richard Dawkins & Brian Greene 14. Naïve realism 15. Stephen Hawking 16. Qualia 17. Panpsychism 18. Advaita Vedanta 19. Sufism 20. What is Life?: With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches -  Erwin Schrodinger 21. Brave New World Episode 94: Anil Seth On The Science of Consciousness. 22. Wayne Dyer 23. Ludwig Wittgenstein 24. Jill Bolte Taylor 25. My Stroke Of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor 26. TED - My stroke of insight: Jill Bolte Taylor 27. Scott Galloway Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Order Vasant Dhar's new book, Thinking With Machines

    1h 14m

  4. 11/19/2025

    Ep 100: David Ko, From Panic to Purpose

    Episode 100 of Brave New World features David Ko, CEO of Calm, a digital health company focused on mental wellness and mindfulness. From experiencing panic attacks as a teenager to being the driving force behind Calm, his journey is an inspiring exploration of resilience, purpose, and the intersection of vulnerability and innovation. Useful Resources: 1. David Ko, CEO of Calm 2. Recharge: Boosting Your Mental Battery, One Conversation at a Time - David Ko 3. Jonathan Haidt 4. Brave New World Episode 08: How Social Media Threatens Society 5. Severance 6. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams 7. Recharge with David Ko Order Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI - Vasant Dhar Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free!

    1h 1m

  5. 09/12/2025

    Ep 99: Vasant Dhar on Thinking With Machines, Hosted by Joel Roberts

    Joel Roberts, former host of a prime-time talk show on KABC Radio, Los Angeles, takes over hosting duties to talk Vasant Dhar about his upcoming book and Roberts' own scepticism regarding all things AI. Useful Resources: 1. Joel Roberts. 2. Thinking With Machines, The Brave New World With AI - Vasant Dhar 3. AI and The Paper Clip Problem. 4. Dr. Jules White. 5. Geoffrey Hinton. 6. Yuval Noah Harari. 7. Augmented Intelligence - The Future of Generative AI and Computing. 8. How The Mind Works - Steven Pinker 9. Brave New World Episode 94: Anil Seth On The Science of Consciousness. 10. Backpropagation 11. Brave New World Episode 98: There's no I in AI, Ben Shneiderman on The Evolution and State of Artificial Intelligence. 12. Brave New World Episode 97: Alex Wiltschko on Digitizing Scent. 13. Brave New World Episode 81: Alex Wiltschko on The Sense Of Smell. 14. Joy Milne. 15. Brave New World Episode 89: Missy Cummings on Making AI Safe. 16. TEDx Talk - When Should We Trust Machines: Vasant Dhar. 17. The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma: Mustafa Suleyman. 18.  Luis Elizondo. Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free!

    1h 27m

  6. 08/14/2025

    Ep 98: There's no I in AI, Ben Shneiderman on The Evolution and State of Artificial Intelligence

    Useful Resources: 1. Ben Shneiderman, Professor Emeritus, University Of Maryland. 2. Richard Hamming and Hamming Codes. 3. Human Centered AI - Ben Shneiderman. 4. Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon. 5. Raj Reddy and the Turing Award. 6. Doug Engelbart. 7. Alan Kay. 8. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 9. Software psychology: Human factors in computer and information systems - Ben Shneiderman. 10. Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction - Ben Shneiderman. 11. Direct Manipulation: A Step Beyond Programming Languages - Ben Shneiderman. 12. Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence - Marvin Minsky. 13. Herbert Gelernter. 14. Computers And Thought - Edward A Feigenbaum and Julian Feldman. 15. Lewis Mumford. 15. Technics and Civilization - Lewis Mumford. 16. Buckminster Fuller. 17. Marshall McLuhan. 18. Roger Shank. 19. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness - Jonathan Haidt. 20. John C. Thomas, IBM. 21. Yousuf Karsh, photographer. 22. Gary Marcus, professor emeritus of psychology and neural science at NYU. 23. Geoffrey Hinton. 24. Nassim Nicholas Taleb. 25. There Is No A.I. - Jaron Lanier. 26. Anil Seth On The Science of Consciousness - Episode 94 of Brave New World. 27. A 'White-Collar Blood Bath' Doesn't Have to Be Our Fate - Tim Wu 28. Information Management: A Proposal - Tim Berners-Lee 29. Is AI-assisted coding overhyped? : METR study 30. RLHF, Reinforcement learning from human feedback 31. Joseph Weizenbaum 32. What Is Computer Science? - Allen Newel, Alan J. Perlis, Herbert A. Simon -- Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free!

    1h 10m

  7. 07/10/2025

    Ep 97: Alex Wiltschko on Digitizing Scent

    Alex Wiltschko, CEO and Founder of Osmo, returns to Brave New World on Episode 97 to discuss the developments in the field of mapping smell and what the future holds for olfactory AI. Useful Resources: 1. Alex Wiltschko, Founder and CEO of OSMO. 2. Brave New World Episode 81: Alex Wiltschko On The Sense Of Smell. 3. StockX. 4. Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry 5. Brave New World Episode 90: Sandeep Robert Datta on Smell and The Brain 6. Brave New World Episode 62: Dmitry Rinberg on the Mysteries of Smell 7. The Science of Scent, Luca Turin's TED Talk. 8. Graph Neural Network 9. Convolutional Networks on Graphs for Learning Molecular Fingerprints; paper by Dougal Maclaurin, David Duvenaud, Alán Aspuru-Guzik 10. OSMO AI passes human performance in Odour Turing Test. 11. Giving Computers a Sense of Smell, Alex Wiltschko in conversation with Patrick O'Shaughnessy 12. A principal odour map unifies diverse tasks in olfactory perception, OSMO's paper in Science. 13. First Success, teleporting the scene of a Plum. 14. Generation, OSMO's fragrance company. 15. Industry report by Global Market Insights on the Global Fragrance Market. 16. Glossine, Wizerine and Fractalin; proprietary AI-generated scent molecules 17. An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales - Oliver Sacks   Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Pre-order Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI - Vasant Dhar

    52 min

  8. 06/12/2025

    Ep 96: Deogratias Niyizonkiza, Healing a Nation, One Village at a Time

    Episode 96 of Brave New World features Deogratias Niyizonkiza in conversation with Vasant Dhar. From surviving the genocide in Burundi to rebuilding lives through healthcare and education, Deo's journey is one of extraordinary resilience and purpose. Useful Resources: 1. Deogratias "Deo" Niyizonkiza, Founder and CEO, Village Health Works. 2. Strength In What Remains - Tracy Kidder. 3. Louis Rwagasore, Burundian Prince and Politician. 4. Hutu, Tutsi and Twa, Ethnic Groups In Burundi. 5. The Assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye. 6. Rwanda Genocide of 1994. 7. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe. 8. Termination of USAID. Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Pre-order Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI - Vasant Dhar.

    1h 3m
See All (100)

5
out of 5
25 Ratings

About

Brave New World is a look into the transformation of humanity by machines in the post-COVID era. It examines a wide range of topics around how technology and "virtualization" of our lives is impacting work, health, faith, emotional well being, government, democracy, and freedom. It is hosted by AI-pioneer Vasant Dhar.

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