In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Yaneer Bar-Yam and I talk about:

• 00:02:22 What is the science of complex systems? How does it choose the proper layer of abstraction?
• 00:11:33 What role social media plays in modelling a ‘social collective’?
• 00:14:47 Why AI is not helpful modelling the pandemic.
• 00:18:46 Is consciousness just an algorithm? Will it simply emerge if the algorithm is right?
• 00:22:01 Why humanity faces extinction in pandemics unless it organizes collective behavior according to Yaneer Bar-Yam.
• 00:22:15 Is COVID a virus that will stick around just like the flu? Is it different than diseases we suffered through over the millenia?
• 00:30:01 Can we still stop COVID? What would it entail? What role does the vaccine play?
• 00:34:13 Why we need another (real) and hard lockdown to burn out the virus according to Prof. Bar-Yam.
• 00:37:12 What is the exit strategy after a lockdown? Why no country has fully opened up yet (incl. travel restrictions).
• 00:40:00 Why travel bubbles never seem to get started (after being announced).
• 00:45:23 What we should do when a new virus hits? How we potentially stop any new virus?

Prof. Yaneer Bar-Yam is the President of the New England Complex Systems Institute. His recent work quantitatively analyzes the origins and impacts of market crashes, social unrest, ethnic violence, military conflict and pandemics, the structure and dynamics of social networks, as well as the bases of creativity, panic, evolution and altruism.

You can also watch this episode on Youtube – #50 – Yaneer Bar-Yam (Complex Systems and why we need another ‘real’ lockdown urgently).

He is the author of two books: a textbook Dynamics of Complex Systems, and Making Things Work, which applies complex systems science to solving problems in healthcare, education, systems engineering, international development, and ethnic conflict.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Ric Gazarian and I talk about:

• 00:04:49 Ric’s motivation to go to all 193 countries and why he intends to finish the challenge.
• 00:20:01 How Ric experienced Thailand during the last 12 months with almost no tourists. Why it is such a great place (even) for experienced travelers.
• 00:22:01 Ric’s surprising recommendation for an affordable, high value, safe country with culinary highlights
• 00:25:03 Why Uzbekistan is such a rewarding place for travelers.
• 00:40:23 How destinations deal with over-tourism and why the ‘best places’ remain in flux.
• 00:48:01 How Ric prepares and deals with potential dangerous situations in his travels.
• 01:04:21 Why the epic drive from Yakutsk to Magadan is so tempting.
• 01:08:21 Can we predict which individual will become an explorer?
• 01:10:01 How Ric got into making travel movies.

You may watch this episode on Youtube – #49 – Ric Gazarian (Why ‘extreme traveler status’ is worth chasing).

Ric Gazarian is the host of Counting Countries. He is the author of three books: Hit The Road: India, 7000 KM To Go, and Photos From Chernobyl.  He is the producer of two travel documentaries: Hit The Road: India and Hit The Road: Cambodia. Ric is also on his own quest to visit every country in the world. You can see where he has traveled so far and keep up with his journey at GlobalGaz.com.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Blaise Aguera y Arcas and I talk about:

• What inspired Blaisee to work so close to the ‘bleeding edge’ of innovation and technology for so many years
• Is the missing ‘explainability’ of AI really a problem?
• Why the complexity of languages (and it’s efficiency) is underrated?
• The impact of the ‘surveillance economy’ on customer perception – will it stay a ‘cat and mouse game’?
• Why the protection of our privacy is “required for survival”?
• How much of an advance will GPT-5 be? Will we become ‘data slaves’ to AI?
• Is there room for ‘personal opinions’ with AIs? Will AI optimize for ‘survival’? Does humanity even ‘optimize for survival’?
• Why ‘developed countries’ have such low rates of fertility compared to ‘developing countries’?
• Is ‘utility’ as a concept really at the core of ‘How the world works’?
• Should we fear AI overlords? Or should we embrace them?
• Is ‘Free Will’ a useful illusion? Is empathy a necessary precursor to consciousness?
• What is the relationship between religion and AI?

You may watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #48 – Blaise Aguera y Arcas (Artificial Intelligence, Free Will and Consciousness plus Religion).

Blaise is a software engineer, software architect, and designer. His TED presentations have been rated some of TED’s ‘most jaw-dropping.’

After working with Microsoft for seven years he now heads Cerebra, a Google Research organization.

In this episode Boris Kester and I talk about:

• What inspired Boris to travel to all 193 countries in the world?
• What is Boris’ recommendation about a great (and easily accessible) countries in Africa and Asia to travel to?
• How likely is it to get into a dangerous situation when traveling to so many ‘unknown’ countries?
• How Boris goes about planning his amazing trips.
• Why Madagascar is such a fascinating country.
• Will technology make travel virtual? How is technology changing travel?
• Why do we travel? Does travel make you a better person?
• Where does wisdom come from?

You can also watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #47 – Boris Kester (What traveling to all 193 countries teaches you about humanity).

Boris Kester has traveled to all UN-recognized 193 different countries. Boris maintains an amazing collection of trip reports and photos on his website traveladventures.org from his journeys. In his other life Boris works as a Senior Purser at KLM Dutch Airlines.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Patrick Smith and I talk about:

• Patrick’s scariest experiences flying planes for 30+ years.
• Why is the B737 MAX a flawed plane?
• Why innovation is stuck in the airline/airframe industry?
• How the airline industry will look like post-COVID?
• Patrick’s favorite airlines and places in the world.
• Why tourism has been on such a ‘dark trail’ before COVID happened?
• and much more!

You may also watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #46 – Patrick Smith (Where’s the innovation in the airline industry?).

Patrick Smith is an airline pilot, air travel blogger and author. Patrick is the author of ‘Ask the pilot’ and ‘Cockpit Confidential’ – both available now on Amazon.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Herbert Blank and I talk about:

• Why ETFs are surprisingly similar to Mutual Funds? And why they are a great tool for retail investors.
• Does ETF trading skew the price in the close auction of public markets? How do Hedge Funds take advantage of it?
• Why the market for ‘alternative data’ is so hot right now? And why ‘curve fitting’ is an increasing problem.
• Why ‘value investing’ is in trouble?
• Why ETFs are intrinsically better at rebalancing your portfolio than most investors?
• and much more!

You may watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #45 – Herbert Blank (A deep dive into ETFs and alternative data).

Herbert Blank works at Global Finesse and has been a ‘quant’ for decades. He was als involved into the launch of iShares and the launch of the GLD (SPDR Gold Shares) ETF.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Bernard Moon and I talk about:

• What is the right amount of co-founders and how can you validate if a co-founder is a great fit? Is a seasoned entrepreneur or college drop-out the better choice?
• How SparkLabs Global Ventures found success investing in companies in Asia (especially in South Korea and Australia).
• Is attention more important than money as a startup?
• What influence does religion have on entrepreneurship?
• Are we in a simulation (and Bernard’s surprising answer!)
• How to do Basic Research right.
• and much more!

You can watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #44 – Bernard Moon (Accelerator Investing gone global).

Bernard Moon is the co-founder & Partner at SparkLabs Group, which is a network of accelerators and venture capital funds that has invested in over 300 companies across 6 continents since 2013.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Melissa Hui and I talk about:

• How ‘depression culture’ took over our cities.
• Does money make you happy? Why are poor countries seemingly so much happier?
• Why we think of technology as our new ‘hyper-religion’?
• Where do we come from and are we in a simulation?
• Is ‘free will’ actually real? And why it seems that we imagine it (for our own good)?
• What will education in the near future look like? How can we overcome laziness?
• How the modern state (and religions) institute the ‘self improvement lifecycle of humans’.
• Why the unequal distribution of motivation is leading to outsized gains with modern technology.
• Can we trace the current depression back to the extreme deflation of ‘Likes’ when Facebook started to change how they give out ‘Likes’?
• How Melissa discovered a crisis was in the making before COVID was around.
• and much more!

You can also watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #43 – Melissa Hui (The future of human interaction and learning).

Melissa Hui is an innovation and transformation strategist and she is the founder of context leap.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Erika Armstrong and I talk about:

• Why becoming a pilot is hard and why it may still be a great endeavour despite COVID”
• Why operating a modern airliner is such a great example for the work that will see in many places in the future.
• What are exciting new developments past the COVID crisis?
• What are the secrets of planes landing in ‘zero visibility’?
• Is the ‘first landing attempt’ always free? And what impact do passengers have on pilot decisions in business aviation?
• My personal ‘scariest flying story’ ever.
• Erika’s personal ‘conspiracy theory’ about MH370.
• How common are drone strikes and laser strikes really?

You can watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #42 – Erika Armstrong (The life of a pilot).

Erika Armstrong  is a commercial pilot and aviation professor at MSU Denver. She is also the author of “A chick in the cockpit”.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Simon Anholt and I talk about:

• How Simon has helped dozens of government entities over the years and how it shaped his ‘view of the world’?
• How governments and citizens define their ‘country mission’? What is a country for exactly?
• What should be the right balance between competition and collaboration between nation states?
• Are humans now being perceived as pieces on a chessboard?
• How manipulated are we currently? And a surprising results of Simon’s index building.
• How travel shapes the image of countries (in other people’s eyes and yours).
• How Simon got to start a ‘virtual nation’.
• Why it is so strange that ‘Community Service’ is a punishment.
• Where does progress actually come from?
• and much more!

You may watch the episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #41 – Simon Anholt (What makes a good country).

Over the last twenty years, Simon Anholt has advised the Presidents, Prime Ministers, monarchs and governments of nearly sixty countries, cities and regions. Simons’s TED talks have amassed millions of views on ted.com and on Youtube. Simon Anholt is the (co)-creator of the Nation Brands Index and the Good Country Index.

Simon has written six books about countries, their images and their role in the world. His latest book, The Good Country Equation: How We Can Repair the World in One Generation is now available on Amazon.

In this episode Marci Powell and I talk about:

• How the COVID crisis revealed how unprepared schools and universities were for online education?
• Why an ‘offline copy’ of learning won’t work online.
• What ‘free content’ will do to the education industry – especially outside of the US.
• How a modern curriculum should look like? How much customization will it involve?
• Is homeschooling a way to improve schooling and lower cost?
• How we will motivate the children and young adults to learn?
• What role will standardized tests play?

You may watch this episode in 4K resolution on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #40 – Marci Powell (The future of online learning).

Marci Powell is a futurist and public speaker. She has been on the forefront of distance learning for more than 20 years and in 2019 she chaired the U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA).

You may reach Marci via LinkedIn.

Apologies for my audio quality during this episode. Thanks to Marci for saving the day!

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Aswath Damodaran and I talk about:

• Why he started putting his lectures online as early as 1997!
• Why Aswath considers academia, journalism and the financial industry ripe for disruption and how Aswath managed to stay ‘independent’ during his teaching career.
• What is the Equity Risk Premium and why Professor Damodaran is so focused on it?
• Professor Damodaran’s view on inflation and interest rates?
• What is source of the low productivity growth in the US? What role did the Federal Reserve in it?
• Will Tesla stay a ‘trend stock’?
• Does Uber actually have a ‘business model’?
• What is behind the backlash against capitalism?
• What are Professor’s Damodaran best investments right now and how do these ‘short squeezes’ actually work?
• and much more!

You may watch this episode in 4K resolution on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #39 – Aswath Damodaran (Making economic sense of a ‘crazy world’).

Aswath Damodaran teaches corporate finance and valuation at the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Aswath has won many accolades for his unique ‘no BS’ teaching style and has also earned the moniker ‘Dean of Valuation’.

You may reach Professor Aswath via his website.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Heidi Roizen and I talk about:

• Which role Stanford University played in Heid’s life personally and how much of a role it has in spawning entrepreneurship.
• Why entrepreneurship is such an important tool to change the world (to the better).
• What are the motivations for entrepreneurship? What skills and values pay off for entrepreneurs?
• Are the public market in a state of irrational exuberance?
• Is the big stagnation is real in entrepreneurship? Have we let go of our own high expectations to improve?
• How the ‘baby boomers’ have corned the real estate market and why the millennials have trouble following the ‘boomer model’?
• Where does Heidi stand in the Miami vs San Francisco debate?
• Do we live in a simulation? Will we be able to upload ourselves into a silicon based lifeform?
• Will we be able to ‘rebuild’ our ancestors from their DNA?
• Are first time entrepreneurs or ‘wise’ serial entrepreneurs the better choice?
• How is religion linked to entrepreneurship?
• How would ‘free energy’ change our life?

Watch this episode in 4K resolution on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #38 – Heidi Roizen (What makes a ‘great’ entrepreneur?).

Heidi Roizen is a venture capitalist at Threshold Ventures, former entrepreneur and Silicon Valley evangelist. She also actively mentors new entrepreneurs.

You may reach Heidi via LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Amit Mehta and I talk about:

• How the automotive industry is structured (i.e. tiered) and how innovation works in that industry
• Why Electric Vehicles (EVs) are so expensive in the US?
• Will Apple ‘corner’ the market for Electric Vehicles soon?
• Are autonomous vehicle ‘just around the corner’?
• What is the discussion about LIDAR sensors and radar all about?
• What role will AI play in the automotive industry?
• And much more!

You may watch this episode in 4K resolution on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #37 – Amit Mehta (The future of the automotive industry).

Amid Mehta is the Head of Innovation at North American Lighting and host of the Mobility Now Podcast.

You may reach Amit via LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Peter Oncken and I talk about:

• How Peter got to start an airline during COVID
• How Peter got started with his amazing track record of restructuring five airlines in Europe
• Why it is so hard to make money in the airline industry?
• Why low-cost & long haul flying is so hard?
• The amazing success of Wizz Air in Europe?
• Why Peters’s newest airline Aero K is starting up in South Korea.
• How Qatar Airways has stealthily become the ‘World’s Best Airline’?
• Who makes the most money in the aviation industry?
• Will electric aircraft take over soon? What are synthetic fuels?

You can watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #36 – Peter Oncken (How to buy/run and sell an airline anywhere).

Peter Oncken is Managing Partner of INTRO Aviation GmbH. Peter has been buying, restructuring, running and selling airlines for two decades including dba, LTU, Cityjet and Corsair.

You may reach Peter via LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Nick Romeo and I talk about:

• Nick’s journey of becoming a journalist and philosopher and what journalism means today in the times of social media?
• Is the criticism of the millenials similar to the ‘elders of Athens’ criticism of Socrates?
• How much of an education should we expect from an ‘average citizen’?
• Is the ‘modern state’ and religion a good way to improve citizens behavior subtly?
• What Plato’s journey to Sicily tell us about the success of Greek asceticism.
• How intense was the exchange between the Israelites and the ancient Greeks? Why were their views on ‘laws’ so different?
• How are the current and ancient Greece connected?
• an much more!

You may watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #35 – Nick Romeo (The connection between ancient Greece and today).

Nick Romeo is a journalist who writes about science, culture, and ideas for a wide range of publications, including the New Yorker, the Washington Post, National Geographic, Slate, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The Atlantic, New Republic, The Daily Beast, The MIT Technology Review, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, and many others.

You may reach Nick via LinkedIn.

• Why travel is such an important tool for ‘World Peace’ – really!
• How travel will look like post COVID? How to make it sustainable without creating more ‘tourist ghettos’?
• How will airline and hotel loyalty programs emerge from COVID?
• Why Qatar Airways seems to be such an extraordinary airline?
• and much more!

You may watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #34 – Henry Harteveldt -Analysis of the airline and hotel industry.

Henry Harteveldt is often called “the voice of the travel industry”. Henry regularly appears on broadcast media, including Bloomberg, CNN, and CNBC. Top-tier print media, such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Associated Press, The New York Times, USA Today, Travel Weekly and Tnooz.

Henry has been an travel industry analyst for more than 14 years, focusing extensively on the airline, lodging/hospitality and cruise sectors. He has published more than 125 research reports during his work at Atmosphere Research.

You may reach Henry via LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast James Willcox and I talk about:

• How James got into travel in the first place and why he started Untamed Borders?
• What is information arbitrage in travel?
• The best and worst of traveling to Afghanistan.
• Why ‘post conflict’ countries as so rewarding for travelers.
• Does Untamed Borders make use of armed guards for their tours? How does the travel agency manage security on their trips?
• Have there been ‘close calls’?
• What are typical clients of an Untamed Borders tour?
• Has ‘adventure travel’ been getting more difficult?
• How is travel to Somalia like these days?
• What secrets does the Amazon still hold for travelers?
• How travel changed James views on religion?

You can watch this episode in Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #33 – James Wilcox (Travel to the world’s most dangerous places).

James Willcox is co-founder of Untamed Borders, a travel agency that can take you safely some of the most dangerous (and most beautiful places) on earth.

James has been an avid traveler for more than a decade and has been traveling to Puntland, Somaliland, Somalia as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan and many more destinations.

You may reach James via LinkedIn.

Apologies for the sound quality of this episode on my side – various improvements are on the way!

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Nick Laqua and I talk about:

• What made Nick venture from Germany to Australia and Hong Kong?
• How Hong Kong struggles to keep its identity after the recent absorption by China.
• How airlines deal with their aging IT infrastructure? And how Cathay Pacific in particular overcame these challenges.
• What role AI will play in the corporate environment.
• Is ‘Free Will’ real and how AI challenges that belief.
• and much more!

You can watch this episode on Youtube – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #32 Nick Laqua (Hong Kong, IT enterprise architecture).

Nick Laqua is a technologist and specializes in IT enterprise architecture. After heading a team to change the enterprise architecture of Cathay Pacific he now works at Mox Bank Hong Kong.

You can reach Nick via LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Nick Shelton and I talk about:

• Why spamming yourself with marketing newsletters is a good way to start building your personal network.
• Why curiosity is a superpower.
• Why we network less in person?
• Why social networks have changed the distribution of friendships around the world?
• Has COVID changed the world of networking permanently?
• and much more about building friendships and human psychology.

You can watch this episode on Youtube in 4K resolution – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #31 Nick Shelton (How to do networking right).

Nick Shelton is an entrepreneur and author of the book An Introvert’s Guide to World Domination: Become a High Level Networker and Upgrade Your Life – now available on Amazon.

You can reach Nick via his LinkedIn page.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Ted Schilowitz and I talk about:

• Is Hollywood missing ‘good hacker’s?
• Does ‘core innovation’ or ‘commercialization’ matter more in technological progress?
• Will Hollywood become a leader in innovation? Does it already provide a ‘permissionless environment’?
• What entertainment will the iPhone 2030 edition deliver?
• What is the current state of innovation for ‘wearable glasses’? Do they have a ‘Newton’ or an ‘iPhone’ moment currently?
• Why did VR not take off (yet)?
• What is the killer app for AR?
• Will Big Tech ever shrink again?
• Are Bitcoin and UBI a great idea? What are good alternatives?

What this episode on Youtube in 4K – The Judgment Call Podcast Episode #30 Ted Schilowitz (The future of the entertainment industry).

Ted started out as a Director and producer of his own films. After that he joined a number of technology companies including RED an innovative producer of high end movie cameras and after working at FOX Studios he is now futurist in residence at Paramount and an evangelist and speaker for the role of innovation in Hollywood.

You may reach Ted on LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Episode Greg Raiz and I talk about:

• How to manage the different timelines and motivations of angel investors, VCs and entrepreneurs?
• How Greg got started with his popular Youtube channel.
• How the ‘core value’ of entrepreneurship in the USA has changed over time?
• What roles does a platform play for entrepreneurship?
• Is capital less important than attention these days?
• How does risk assessment work for venture investors? And what is Greg’s golden rule before asking for money?
• How will the singularity impact our lives?
• Is the ‘Big stagnation’ real?
• and much more!

You can watch the podcast on Youtube in 4k resolution.

Greg Raiz is the founder of Raizlabs a mobile and web application design and development.

Greg started angel investing in Boston in 2017 and has invested in over a dozen companies to date. His interests are in companies that are improving lives through technology and design. Companies that have a clear vision, mission, team and plan are most interesting.

You may reach Greg via LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Robert Matzkin and I talk about:

• Does surfing make you a better entrepreneur?
• How to avoid ongoing fights between co-founders.
• A better future of education in schools and universities.
• What blended learning might be the future.
• How should we deal with the reduction in equality?
• How we will deal the major new innovations like AI and Quantum computing?
• and much more!

Watch this episode in 4K on Youtube.

Robert Matzkin is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of myquest.co. Robert also mentors others entrepreneurs to find a better work and life balance.

You can reach out to Rob via LinkedIn.

In this episode of The Judgment Call Podcast Desi-Rae and I talk about:

• How these ‘social media bans’ actually got started.
• Why ‘Big Tech is so powerful’ and why it is ‘eating politics’ right now.
• Is the ‘race conflict’ and ‘gender conflict’ and other hot button political issues just narratives that are used to distract citizens?
• How and why did the world go so ‘crazy’ the last few years?
• Is the overshoot of empathy to blame for the divisiveness of today?
• What are the pros/cons of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the impact of the movement in summer 2020 in the US.
• Do Desi-Rae’s political opinions shape her artwork?
• Is Bitcoin a tool to create a better and more responsible government?

Desi-Rae is a Youtuber, Crypto enthusiast and artist. Desi-Rae started with videos she recorded while driving and she is not worried about touching sensitive topics like Race and IQ, Fascinated and Horrified.

Watch this episode on Youtube in 4K resolution.

You can reach Desi-Rae via Twitter.

In this episode of The Judgment Call Podcast Arran Rice and I talk about:

• The spoils of being an entrepreneur and digital nomad
• What drove Arran to become an entrepreneur at the age of 11
• How Arran used Digital Marketing to scale his businesses
• Arran’s view on the travel industry and the current crisis
• What Arran’s current start-up simpleflying.com is about
• How the COVID crisis changed my own travel habits
• and much more!

View this episode on Youtube in 4K resolution.

Arran Rice is a serial entrepreneur, digital media ‘wonderkind’ and digital nomad.

You can reach Arran via his website.

In this episode of The Judgment call Podcast Charles-Louis Allizard and I talk about:

• What distinguishes ‘Digital Nomadism‘ and tourism?
• Why personal travel is way to ‘world peace’.
• What are the positives and negatives of ‘Digital Nomadism’? Is ‘Digital Nomadism’ an expression of the reduced entrepreneurial opportunities in many developed economies?
• Is loneliness a necessary downside of travel? What role does fulfilling your own purpose play in that?
• What is the future of education? How does the concept of ‘atomic knowledge’ shape learning?
• How languages shape our thinking and awareness of things around us.
• France’s legacy in Europe and in the world.
• And much more.

View this episode on Youtube in 4K resolution.

Charles-Louis Allizard is a web developer, entrepreneur, digital nomad, lecturer and is directing web documentaries in his free time.

You can reach Charles via his website.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Xavier de le Rue and I talk about:

• How Xavier find his perfect locations and mitigates the enormous risk of his hobby and profession?
• What video games and jumping off a cliff have in common?
• How Xavier grew up to be a winter sports athlete (and the surprising story of his family of athletes)?
• What to do in an avalanche?
• How Xavier’s popular Youtube movies are actually being filmed.
• The joys of snowboarding in Antarctica.
• Are the Himalayas the final frontier for ‘extreme snowboarding?
• Xaviers new podcast The Sustainability Dialogues Podcast

Xavier de le Rue is a World Champion of Snowboarding, Youtuber, Daredevil of Extreme Snowboarding who drops off 150 degrees from a mountain cliff before having his morning coffee. You may reach him via his website.

Xavier also hosts The Sustainability Dialogues Podcast.

Video credit for the Youtube episode:

• This is my Winter and Mission Antarctic

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Mark Saroufim and I talk about:

• Has the AI community become intellectually lazy and is there a a stagnation in progress?
• Why is AI so complicated and what are the gatekeepers in AI research right now?
• Should we expect Artificial General Intelligence soon? How predictable is the progress in AI?
• Why is there so little innovation in creating ‘cheaper products’?
• The surprising libertarian roots of Lebanon.
• Why the Internet is so great of connected like-minded people.
• The future of education – revisited.
• and much more!

Mark Saroufim currently works with Graphcore and has previously worked for Microsoft, NASA and studied at UC San Diego and UC Berkeley. He is a prolific writer at Medium including his latest article Machine Learning: The Great Stagnation.

You may reach Mark via his website.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Aaron Fulkerson and I talk about:

• The very short history of information sharing inside an enterprise and open-source distributions (and Mindtouch!)
• What punk rock and entrepreneurship have in common?
• What social media does to our children?
• Did the Facebook algorithm change in 2015 start the polarization of the world we currently see?
• How Youtube has been changing the world of education already.
• Is success early in your life a curse or blessing?
• What is the best age to discover philosophy?
• And much more!

Aaron Fulkerson is a serial entrepreneur. He is the founder and former CEO of Mindtouch and is now working with ServiceNOW.

You can reach Aaron via LinkedIn.

• Why are the ‘Middle Ages’ often called the ‘Dark Ages’?
• What were the biggest improvements in the ‘Middle Ages’ compared to the Roman Empire.
• Were the contemporaries of the Middle Ages drunk all the time?
• What are the most popular misconceptions about the ‘Middle Ages’?
• How did the taste for popular foods change so much over the centuries?
• Why the debate about healthy food is much older than you think.
• The story about Lampreys that you never knew.
• Why monasticism is such an important part of the ‘Middle Ages’.
• Why did the ‘Scientific Revolution’ not happen in the ‘Middle Ages’?
• Did slavery delay the invention of the ‘steam engine’?
• What was life like as an entrepreneur in the ‘Middle Ages’?
• Did the debt cycles of modern day have parallels in the ‘Middle Ages’?
• Are there parallels between the late Roman Empire and the US in the current day?
• Why was Islam so popular when it started out?
• and much more!

Professor Paul Freedman has been teaching at Vanderbilt University and at Yale since 1997. He specializes in medieval social history, the history of Catalonia, comparative studies of the peasantry, trade in luxury products, and the history of cuisine.  His lecture series about the ‘Middle Ages’ has been viewed more than 700,000 times on Youtube.

Paul is also a prolific author about history and food including:

• Food: The History of Taste  and American Cuisine: And How It Got That Way both available on Amazon.

In this episode Rubelyn (Ruby) Alcantara and I talk about:

• What is impact investing and what are the success stories?
• Where is the focus of innovation in impact investing?
• What is impact of fast Internet that is now available to most African Internet users?
• Is the individual freedom in Africa much higher than commonly perceived and what impact does it have on economic growth?
• Is the story of democracy in Africa a successful one? What are the downsides?
• Are charter cities an option for Africa?
• Is a Singapore style development a useful role model for Africa? How can economic growth be jump started?
• Can the ‘Dutch disease’ be avoided when using commodities as a way to jump start growth?
• What are the TOP 5 and Bottom 5 countries in terms of economic success? Is Ethiopia on the way to success?
• What is the future of energy production in Africa?

Rubelyn (Ruby) Alcantara is an entrepreneur, impact investment practitioner consultant, public speaker focused on entrepreneurship. She has lived in 16 countries through her career in UK, Europe and Africa including Tanzania, Nigeria, Madagascar and Kenya.

She runs Supivaa Advisory Group, a Canadian-African based impact investment advisory firm focused on gender-lens investing and sits as an Advisor to Uhusiano Capital, a UK-based impact investment firm. You can reach Ruby via LinkedIn.

In this episode Evan Weber and I talk about:

• How the digital marketing landscape has changed over the years?
• How affordable advertising opportunities have driven entrepreneurial success.
• What the Shopify platform has done for ecommerce sites?
• Can you derive high value traffic from TikTok?
• Will there be a ‘privacy backlash’ from the intrusion of our privacy by Facebook or Google?
• Did Google’s / Facebook’s high prices reduce entrepreneurship during the last few years?
• Why are subscription revenue businesses so hot right now?
• and much more!

Evan Weber has been breathing digital marketing for over 20 years. With his own digital marketing agency he has been working with 300+ companies to improve their marketing efforts. Evan has also been a speaker at various digital marketing industry events.

You can reach Evan via LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Steven and I talk about:

• What led Steven to become a student of philosophy?
• How his lecture ‘Introduction to Political Philosophy‘ made its way to Youtube.
• How Steven decides about which books are included in the introduction course?
• What cult leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians and philosophers have in common?
• Are we creating an ever more polarizing political philosophy currently?
• What role does postmodernism play in Political Philosophy right now?
• What is the ‘philosopher’s curse’?
• What is the role of patriotism in the US now?

Steven B. Smith has been teaching at Yale since 1984. Steven’s lecture series ‘Introduction to Political Philosophy‘ has been viewed 700,000 times on Youtube. Steven also has been a prolific author including  Hegel’s Critique of Liberalism , Political Philosophy (2012) and the Modernity and its Discontents .

His latest book is titled “Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes,” – which is now available for pre-orders on Amazon.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Hayvi Bouzo talk about:

• What makes the Middle East so special as a region of innovation, spirituality and lately turmoil and conflict?
• What Hayvi found to be true during her time growing up in Damascus, Syria.
• Why democracies tend to be better at delivering ‘basic services’ to their citizens.
• What are ‘forces for good’ in the Middle East according to Hayvi?
• The true impact of the ‘Abraham Accords’ in the Middle East.
• How should we deal with ‘reformers’ in the Middle East regime countries?
• Will the new US administration retreat further from US footprint in the world?
• Why most of the best allies of the US eventually turn into enemies?
• Is the slowing productivity growth an issue for future US geopolitics?
• Is the impact of foreign policies overstated?
• and much more!

Hayvi Bouzo is journalist, TV host, podcast host and blogger. Hayvi focuses on the Middle East and the political and cultural tension in the region.

You can reach Hayvi via LinkedIn.

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In this episode Bennet Bayer and I talk about:

• What are some of the most remarkable experiences Bennet had while working in a new country?
• Why asking the ‘right Why questions’ is a golden rule.
• What’s advantage of being an intraprenuer instead of an entrepreneur?
• How to build the connection between technology and human emotion?
• Will ‘virtual companies’ with minimal operations become the norm?
• Will ‘Big Tech’ keep accumulating in size?
• Will we continue to move our lives into the cloud and keep retreating from the physical world?
• What are examples of technology companies with a great product but terrible marketing?
• What are examples of technology companies with great marketing but a terrible product?
• How to hire a great salesperson?
• What is the role of educational institutions in the age of the Internet?
• What are great opportunities for entrepreneurs right now?
• and much more.

Bennet has been CMO or CEO (incl. Huawei Global CMO) in a long list of companies. He has been holding management positions in a dozen different countries including Afghanistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

You can reach Bennet via LinkedIn.

In this episode Jay Zhao and I talk about:

• What investment opportunities Jay is currently excited about?
• Jay’s favorite investment so far – Sleeper
• How can a Venture Capitalist stay honest and humble?
• How are the interests of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists aligned?
• What is the best way for founders and VC’s to find a “common match”?
• Is the ‘big stagnation’ real? Will AI solve our GDP growth issue?
• What is the best company to start in China right now?
• Is China now ‘more entrepreneurial’ and ‘more common-sense’ than the US?
• Is China now in a similar phase as Germany was post world-war I?
• What role does the ‘superiority complex’ play in China, Germany or Japan.
• What are China’s best cities?

Jay Zhao is an entrepreneur-turned-VC, and is currently Managing Partner at Leonis Capital, he was a Partner at T Fund (aka TCL Ventures) and Walden Venture Capital before.

You can reach Jay via LinkedIn.

In this episode of The Judgment Call Podcast David Orban and I talk about:

• The forgotten story of COVID-19 spread in Europe in late 2019
• What makes a Futurist?
• What does the Fermi paradox tell us about intelligent life in the universe?
• Is Peter Thiel’s ‘Big Stagnation’ thesis spot on?
• Why the jump in Artificial Intelligence progress (2012-2020) is so meaningful.
• What is a ‘jolting technology’ as introduced by David?
• Will AGI happen soon? Why ‘human level’ AGI is not a good comparison to look at.
• Will the ‘knowledge singularity’ happen in 2038 (i.e. a human level AI will be available for $1,000)?
• Why we haven’t been visited by intelligence from outside the solar system?
• How can we ‘colonize the universe’ despite being able to travel ‘just’ with the speed of light.
• Are we in a simulation and how will we simulate ourselves?
• Has the world really gotten way more complicated in the last 20 years?
• Is ‘string theory’ flawed after all?
• The case for ‘Universal Basic Income (UBI)’ as per David Orban.
• What are the technologies and fields that will see exponential growth in the next 10 years?

David Orban is a thinker, investor, futurist and technophile. He has been a mentor with the Thiel fellowship for many years. He was one the first investors in Ether and early investor in Bitcoin.

You can reach David Orban via his website.

In this episode of The Judgment Call Podcast Niels Pflaeging and I talk about:

• What’s the prototype of a ‘democratic’ (flat) organization? What companies are examples of that?
• Is Mariana Mazzucato right that innovations are mostly based on taxpayer funded research?
• Why the US military is a surprising example of a ‘flat organization’?
• and much more 🙂

Niels Pflaeging is the founder of red42, a leadership philosopher, management exorcist, speaker, author, and advisor.

Niels’ latest book – Organize for Complexity: How to Get Life Back Into Work to Build the High-Performance Organization  – is now available on Amazon.

In this episode of The Judgment Call Podcast Daniel Gross and I talk about:

• What attracted Daniel to starting companies in the first place?
• What makes (scalable) software special for entrepreneurs?
• What are the incentives in Open Source software ecosystem?
• Is religion a major driver for entrepreneurship? What are the drivers for starting a company and where does this unending optimism come from?
• How can ‘gamification’ help us learn?
• How can we institute measurements for long-term consumer satisfaction?
• How ‘Youtube style learning’ will change the future of the next generation.
• What benefits pioneer.app offers to successful applicants?
• How Pioneer can help curate a body of knowledge in entrepreneurship.
• Is entrepreneurship an algorithm?
• Are the BIG 5 personality traits predictive in a founder success?
• Daniel’s views on the ‘Big stagnation’.
• Daniel’s tips for the best places to start a company.

Daniel Gross is an entrepreneur and thinker and futurist who started out with Cue (a search engine). He later worked for Apple and joined  Y Combinator as a partner. Daniel is also an angel investor and runs his own (remote) distributed accelerator /incubator called pioneer.app (funded by Stripe and Marc Andreessen).

You can reach Daniel on Twitter.

In this episode of The Judgment Call Podcast Peter Bordes and I talk about:

• What drove Peter to become a serial entrepreneur?
• What is the archetype of an entrepreneur composed of?
• Is the current path to success for many startups broken? Is the ‘old boys network’ still in charge of the IP pipeline?
• What impact does the ‘death if the industrial age’ have on the tech industry?
• How does Peter’s investment process work?
• Peter’s plan to incorporate a body of knowledge for successful entrepreneurship and building a business (the four pillars).
• Has Silicon Valley already moved into the cloud and left the local area?
• How will education work in the future? How will we motivate people to learn? How will we choose topics? What value does mentorship have?
• Are startup accelerators like YCombinator a good way for startups to grow?
• What role religion plays in entrepreneurship?
• How travel to other regions influenced Peter and what adventures he lived through.
• What is ‘positive PTSD’?
• How we have all been swept up by this person-to-person proganada (in order to sell more).
• Will we have an AI that prospects us from Big Tech propaganda soon?
• What will be the outcome the media upheaval?
• Will there be a singularity of knowledge accumulation soon?
• Do we live in a simulation? Will we simulate our own minds soon?

Peter Bordes is a serial entrepreneur, executive, investor, mentor and advisor. He currently runs Trajectory Capital,  TruVest and MainBloq.

You can reach Peter on Linkedin.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Bill and I talk about:

• Should seed investors only invest in companies ‘that an idiot’ can run?
• What role does talent play in seed rounds?
• The short history of Angel Investing and Seed Funds
• Bill’s first start-up and how he got into Venture Capital
• The short history of Garage Technology Ventures and Guy Kawasaki
• The TOP 10 lies of entrepreneurs & The TOP 10 lies of investors?
• How does the VC industry help establish trust in the marketplace?
• Crowdfunding and it’s future and influence
• The problem with the monopoly of Google and Facebook in online advertising
• Are Vision Fund investments IPO pipeline deals a bad idea for IPO investors?
• Why the Federal Reserve policy and zombie companies pose a ‘structural risk’ for the US economy.
• Garage Technology’s best and worst investments
• Has the technology adoption cycle shortened?
• Is the big stagnation in tech real?
• Should we invest more money into basic research?
• Will Artificial General Intelligence happen anytime soon?
• Will the jobs replaced by AI matter more than one’s created by AI?
• Will the next 20 years see more technological progress and/or more volatility?
• Will there be another ‘sucker punch’ to the global economy before we start the roaring 30s?
  

Bill Reichert can easily be described as the ‘Oracle of Palo Alto’. After grinding his teeth in his own start-ups in the 1980’s and 1990s; he has been working as a seed stage investor since 1998 initially with Garage Technology Ventures and now under the roof of Pegasus Tech Ventures.

You can reach Bill on LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Kelly and I talk about:

• How much you should specialize early in your life.
• Should you listen to ‘billionaire mentors’?
• Are military values are great basis for entrepreneurship? Is leadership training a predictor for start-up success?
• Why gretel.ai and id.me are some of Moonshot Capital’s best investments.
• How did COVID change the ‘deal flow’ for Venture Capital firms?
• What impact will Crowdfunding have on Venture Capital?
• What impact does religion have on entrepreneurship?

Kelly is a VC, Entrepreneur, Military Veteran, Winner of Season 2 – The Apprentice, and father of twins. Kelly is the co-founder & Managing General Partner of Moonshots Capital.

You can reach Kelly on LinkedIn.

P.S. Apologies for my audio quality – this will get much better very soon!

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Mike and I talk about:

• How it feels to risk your life every day as a NAVY SEAL.
• Why and how society has moved away from the values presented and embedded by the military?
• Why the NAVY SEAL’s ‘Basic Training’ is anything but BASIC.
• How Mike went from Atherton, CA to the military.
• How can talent be identified? What role does leadership development play in large corporations?
• Can you still be effective when selling to big corporations HR departments?
• Will AI ever be able to identify talent and how effective can it be at this?

Mike is the author of The Talent War: How Special Operations and Great Organizations Win on Talent – now available on Amazon.

MIKE SARRAILLE is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL officer, a graduate of the University of Texas McCombs Business School, and now a leadership instructor, speaker and strategic advisor for Echelon Front. Mike served fifteen years as an officer in the SEAL Teams and five years in the U.S. Marine Corps as an enlisted Recon Marine and Scout-Sniper. Mike served in SEAL Team THREE, Task Unit Bruiser alongside Extreme Ownership authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin where he led major combat operations that played a pivotal role in the Battle of Ramadi in 2006. Mike is a recipient of the Silver Star, six Bronze Stars, two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, and a Purple Heart.

Upon his retirement from the Navy, Mike joined Echelon Front as leadership instructor, speaker, strategic advisor. He is CEO of Echelon Front Overwatch, a company that specializes in the recruiting, training and placement of U.S special operations forces veterans.

In this episode of the The Judgment Call Podcast Darren and I talk about:

• What lead Darren to become a serial entrepreneur
• The dilemma of choosing a career path and the emotional toll of being a serial entrepreneur
• Has the adoption of technology slowed down and what to expect in the next 20 years?
• How does crowdfunding work? What amounts can companies raise right now and in the near future?
• How do crypto based funding rounds work (and ICOs) compared to crowdfunding?
• What business do best using crowdfunding?
• What does issuance.com provide for startups and what’s the “Going Public” show?
• What is the role of religion in entrepreneurship?

Darren Marble is the CEO of Issuance.com, the leading provider of technology and marketing solutions for Reg A+ issuers raising capital in the US and Canada. issuance.com’ clients have raised over $250 million to date.

Darren is also the Executive Producer of Going Public®, a new original series that allows viewers to invest in IPOs.

You can reach Darren on Linkedin.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Steve and I talk about:

• Will AI be an existential challenge to humanity anytime soon?
• What progress AI has been making and why it has sped up in the last 10 years so much?
• Is AI already smarter than teenagers?
• Is Twitter’s / Facebook AI evil?
• Why are self-driving cars such bad drivers currently? Will self driving cars be autonomous very soon?
• Are we inside a simulation and could we create one easily?
• Has AI already changed the job market to be more short-term?
• Will AI increase the quality of life?
• What opportunities are there for entrepreneurs right now?

Steve Shwartz began his AI career as a postdoctoral researcher in the Yale University Artificial Intelligence Lab. Starting in the 1980s, Steve was a founder or cofounder of several AI companies, one of which created Esperant, which was one of the leading business intelligence products of the 1990s. As the AI Winter of the 1990s set in, Steve transitioned into a career as a successful serial software entrepreneur and investor and created several companies that were either acquired or had public offerings.  He is the author of “Evil Robots, Killer Computers, and Other Myths:  The Truth About AI and the Future of Humanity” which will be published on February 9, 2021 by Fast Company Press and maintains a website www.AIPerspectives.com that contains a free, 400-page, online AI 101 textbook.

You can reach Steve at LinkedIn.

You can find the episode’s transcript here.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Mike and I talk about:

• Why entrepreneurship is a major driver in this world to alleviate poverty, increase freedom and increase wealth
• Why entrepreneurship of the last 30 years has been different and what role large Internet platforms play in this.
• What opportunities are there for entrepreneurs in the in life sciences and healthcare field?
• Why the Opentronix platform might be a game changer?
• How to get a large enough dataset for AI analysis in life sciences?
• Should patients be able to sell their own medical data?
• Is single cell DNA analysis a big step forward?
• What role will ‘injectable machines’ play in the next 10 years?
• Will we all stay ’28 year olds’ forever?
• How is aging and income related to the number of children we have?
• Is innovation related to studying art?
• Will learning and social media be done with the help of an AI that helps us interact with the Internet AIs.
• Are we repeating the issues with cancer with COVID testing?

Originally from Toledo, Ohio, Mike graduated from the University of Toledo with a BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, with a focus on Physics. Serial entrepreneur, with a focus on process improvements via technology automation and user experience design. Additionally, spent three years in leadership development, fundraising, and membership recruitment for the National Exchange Club, which was made up of ~800 clubs and ~30,000 members. Spent three years as director of technology for Pukka Headwear, completely re-writing and automating a large portion of their design, sales, and order system with a focus on the web. Spent seven years focused on processes and automation at MD Anderson, ultimately building a system that managed over 3,000 clinical trials and secures over half a million patient records. Currently serving as VP of Customer Success and Innovation at Project Ronin, a start-up with a mission of utilizing AI and Data Science to remove uncertainty from cancer patients’ care and improve their outcomes. Current entrepreneurial endeavors include co-founder of a laser cutting business, a CBD company, and Pro Research Management, which is focusing on delivering clinical trials to underrepresented communities by partnering with local care givers.  

You can reach Mike on LinkedIn.

You can find the episode’s transcript here.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Pablo and I talk about:

• How travel and new languages shape you and the way you think.
• How Venture Capital has changed and what’s the future of VC (incl. the Middle East).
• Why Dubai took off and how it can be replicated in another place?
• Why Private Education has grown all over the world so quickly.
• What is the future of K-12 education and the degrees needed?
• How memories are stored in our brain and how reliable are they?
• Did evolution give us consciousness?
• Why globalization is reversing.
• Will there be a US / Chinese conflict in the next 10 years?

Pablo is an engineer, turned investment professional (in Venture Capital, Private Equity and public equities), turned education entrepreneur. In a career spanning over a quarter century Pablo has been fortunate to live and work in seven countries in Europe, South America, Asia and the Middle East and to become proficient in four languages along the way.

You can reach Pablo on LinkedIn.

You can find the episode’s transcript here.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Amit and I talk about:

• How the Internet monopolies like Facebook and Google have shaped our life and prevented upstart innovation
• How ‘social-to-social commerce’ works.
• How the ‘data giants’ usurp data from anyone without their ‘expressed’ consent
• What meditation does for your mind and how to think more clear
• How Awake may change we do social commerce
• How many universes there are?
• How does consciousness actually work and what makes it different than a dream?
• Do we have free will?

Amit Rathore is a 40 year old serial entrepreneur and angel investor based in San Mateo, CA. Since 2003 he has focused on AI, media, commerce, and FinTech verticals.

He is the founder of AwakeVC, a private equity holdings company focused on creating 100M jobs by enabling 10M new technology ventures globally.

You can reach Amit via email at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.

You can find the episode’s transcript here.

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Chris Tomseth shares his view of the travel industry:

• How it feels to grow up in a dozen different countries
• The challenges facing the travel industry during COVID
• Chris’ list of favorite countries
• Why some airlines can’t fly where they want to fly
• Why some airlines like Qatar Airways will never make money
• What happened to Thailand’s tourism economy
• What role does freedom play in economic development across the world
• Why capsule hotels are awesome (and hostels in general?!)
• A new service that makes it easier to get through an airport with children
• How airline lounges win most of their business
• How to book hotels and do good at the same time?

Chris is a multi-cultural, internationally-experienced travel executive, with over 20 years of industry experience. Chris has worked with a range of companies, from blue-chip multinationals such as Delta Air Lines, Choice Hotels International, Gate Gourmet, and Emirates, to travel technology startups and U.S. and UAE Government agencies. Chris’ functional experience includes operational, sales and marketing, product development, finance, and strategy roles.

His prior roles have included Head of Global Sales for Choice Hotels International, Interim Chief Commercial Officer with Gate Gourmet, Head of Global Strategy and Business Development for Dnata Travel Services (part of the Emirates Group) as well as Director of Strategic Development for TRX.  Chris has lived and worked during his professional career in the United States, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

Chris has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and has served on several Boards of both private and public organizations.  He is currently advising and involved in several early-stage travel and hospitality companies and is resident in the Washington DC metro area.

You can reach Chris on LinkedIn.

You can download the podcast here.

You can find the episode’s transcript here.

In this episode of Judgment Call I talk to David Yeskel about travel, cruises and Las Vegas.

You can follow David on Twitter at @vegasguru_ or @cruiseguru_

You can find the episode’s transcript here.