Good conversations recently on a couple of podcasts with young, up-and-coming hosts:

Arjun Khemani

We talk about the need to study progress, tackle the question of whether progress makes humans any happier, optimism and solutionism, and some more.

Timestamps:

• 0:38 Why we need a new philosophy of progress
• 3:54 “Almost nothing about progress is linear…”
• 9:56 Why bother making any progress in the first place?
• 11:56 Should we “go against nature”?
• 18:01 Does progress make us happy? Are we on an intergenerational hedonic treadmill?
• 27:52 Optimism and solutionism
• 35:15 What’s your message for people living a thousand years from now?

Also on Apple, Spotify, and Substack.

Alex LaBossiere

“On optimism, progress in technology, drivers of stagnation, and how to think about innovation.” Here’s a teaser, about William Crookes and his “alarmism” about the fertilizer crisis (which I covered in depth in the MIT Tech Review). Listen on the show page or on Apple podcasts.

See all my interviews & talks here.