The Best of All Worlds
A show about saving the world, because we have to -- and about rock and roll, because I want to.
The Best of All Worlds takes a serious look at a few, simple questions: What is the most important problem in the world? How would we find it, and How do we solve it? It interviews politicians, academics, journalists, musicians, and more, to try to get the answers that will set us, as a species, in the right direction.
Expect occasional swearing.
Episodes
13 episodes
Adam Becker Gets Palestinians and Israelis to Talk Head On: Part 2
Part 2! In which we get into the conversations currently happening on HeadOn, such as Jerusalem Days on Wednesdays, how the most productive role of AI is definitely not as an arbiter of truth, and more.
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19:56
Adam Becker Gets Palestinians and Israelis to Talk Head On: Part 1
Oh man, this one covered a lot of ground. Adam Boaz Becker and I talk about his company HeadOn, and how he's using modern technology to get people to have difficult, but critical, conversations. Along the way, we talk about AI and its possible ...
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24:06
Neal Desai Tries to Save the Federal Workforce: Part 1
This conversation was a fascinating, in-depth look from an expert, on a critical subject -- which of course means that it's pretty bleak right now. Neal Desai is currently the head of HR for the State of Maryland, a job he has taken after being...
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33:05
Anna Goldfarb Helps You Be a Modern Friend: Part 2
Anna Goldfarb has been called "the New York Times Friendship correspondent," and with a title like that how could I resist? We talk about her great new book Modern Friendship, which is an extremely practical approach to building and keeping fri...
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25:30
Anna Goldfarb Helps You Be a Modern Friend: Part 1
Anna Goldfarb has been called "the New York Times Friendship correspondent," and with a title like that how could I resist? We talk about her great new book Modern Friendship, which is an extremely practical approach to building and keeping fri...
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25:55
Rosie Cima as Rockstar: The Interview. Part 2
(Part 2) Finally, some rock and roll! I talk to my old friend and ex-roommate Rosie Cima about her band, her songs, and her love of songwriting workshops. We learn about whether you should tell your band about your breakups, and I get some of t...
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26:45
Rosie Cima as Rockstar: The Interview. Part 1
Finally, some rock and roll! I talk to my old friend and ex-roommate Rosie Cima about her band, her songs, and her love of songwriting workshops. We learn about whether you should tell your band about your breakups, and I get some of the best a...
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Season 1
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21:41
Listen or Die!, Part 2: The Life and Death Importance of Community, with Pete Davis
Listen to Part 1 of this interview, here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2241474/episodes/16716288Pete Davis made an awesome movie about Robert Putnam (Join or Die, now available on Netflix); and I made a podcast about Pete Davis. In it we t...
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21:41
Listen or Die!, Part 1: The Life and Death Importance of Community, with Pete Davis
Pete Davis made an awesome movie about Robert Putnam (Join or Die, now available on Netflix); and I made a podcast about Pete Davis. In it we talk about his mentor, professor, friend, Harvard Professor and National Humanities Medal winner Bob P...
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20:59
Why We Don't Have Working Class Politicians, w/Prof. Nicholas Carnes: Part 2
In this second half our conversation, Prof. Carnes and I talk about his experience running a candidate training workshop, and what people say they want in a politician. We also talk about my research, which begins to points the way towards iden...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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27:41
An Interview with, and Remembrance of, Robert Altemeyer
Robert Anthony Altemeyer, or "Dr. Bob," was one of my personal heroes. I firmly believe his research on authoritarian psychology, which he studied for over half a century, should be required reading for the world. To my great sadness, and that ...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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59:30
Why We Don't Have Working Class Politicians, w/Prof. Nicholas Carnes: Part 1
Nicholas Carnes is a professor of political science at Duke, where he studies the reasons there are so few politicians with working class backgrounds, what consequences that has for the country, and what we might be able to do about it. We talk...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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28:24
The Most Important Problem: Prologue and Introduction
This episode contains the pre-Chapter 1 material from the current draft of my book, The Most Important Problem. It gives the origin story of my current research, including the interviews I do on this show. If you're new, this is a good place to...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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30:51