Brave New World -- hosted by Vasant Dhar

Hosted by Data Governance Network

Technology News

Website RSS feed

Episodes

100

Latest episode

Jun 2026

Language

About the show

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.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

June 11, 2026Episode 1061 hr 16 min

Ep 106: Luca Turin On Decoding Smell

Smell is the most mysterious of our senses and we've been getting it wrong. Biophysicist Luca Turin joins Vasant Dhar to reveal why and how our noses detect vibrations and what that could mean for disease diagnosis, security, and the future of AI. Useful Resources: 1. Luca Turin. 2. Perfumes: The A-Z Guide - Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez. 3. The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell - Luca Turin. 4. Perfumes: The Guide, 2018 - Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez. 5. A Spectroscopic Mechanism for Primary Olfactory Reception - Luca Turin. 6. Laying a controversial smell theory to rest - Leslie B. Vosshall. 7. Status of the Vibrational Theory of Olfaction - Ross D. Hoehn, David E. Nichols, Hartmut Neven, Sabre Kais. 8. Implausibility Of The Vibrational Theory Of Olfaction - Eric Block, Seogjoo Jang, Hiroki Matsunami, Hanyi Zuhang. 9. A Psychophysical Test Of The Vibration Theory Of Olfaction - Andreas Keller and Leslie B. Vosshall. 10. A Novel Multigene Family May Encode Odorant Receptors: A Molecular Basis For Odour Recognition - Linda Buck, Richard Axel. 11. A Principal Odour Map Unifies Diverse Tasks In Olfactory Perception - Brian K. Lee, Emily J. Mayhew, Benjamin Sanchez-Lengeling, Jennifer N. Wei, Wesley W. Qian, Kelsie A. Little, Matthew Andres, Britney B. Nguyen, Theresa Moloy and Alexander B. Wiltschko. 12. Luca Turin On Substack. 13. Episode 81 of Brave New World: Alex Wiltschko on the Sense of Smell14. Episode 97 Of Brave New World: Alex Wiltschko on Digitising Scent Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Order Vasant Dhar's new book, Thinking With Machines

May 14, 2026Episode 1051 hr 8 min

Ep 105: Nicholas Christakis on The Impacts of Machines on Human Groups

Your networks shape you more than you know. Nicholas Christakis joins Vasant Dhar to reveal how machines inserted into human groups quietly rewire the way people cooperate, coordinate, and trust — and why a little artificial noise might be exactly what we need. Useful Resources: 1. Nicholas Christakis2. Human Nature Lab3. The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years - Nicholas Christakis and James H Fowler4. Widowhood Effect5. The Effect of Widowhood on Mortality by the Causes of Death of Both Spouses- Felix Elwert and Nicholas Christakis6. Locally Noisy Autonomous Agents Improve Global Human Coordination in Network Experiments - Hirokazu Shirado and Nicholas Christakis7. ETH Global Lecture, Social Artificial Intelligence8. Graph Colouring9. Vulnerable robots positively shape human conversational dynamics in a human–robot team - Margaret L. Traeger, Sarah Strohkorb Sebo, Malte Jung and Nicholas Christakis 10. Hirokazu Shirado11. Chicken, The Game12. Emergence and collapse of reciprocity in semiautomatic driving coordination experiments with humans - Shunichi Kasahara, Hirokazu Shirado and Nicholas Christakis13. Traffic Patterns in Seattle and Hyderabad: Immediate and Mediate Transactions - Paul G. Hiebert 14. Brian Scassellati15. Iyad Rahwan16. Machine Behaviour - Iyad Rahwan17. A Randomised Controlled Trial of Social Network Targeting to Maximise Population Behaviour Change - David A Kim, Alison R Hwong, Derek Stafford, D Alex Hughes, A James O'Malley, Nicholas Christakis, James H Fowler18. Induction of social contagion for diverse outcomes in structured experiments in isolated villages - Edoardo M. Airoldi, Nicholas Christakis 19. Algorithms for seeding social networks can enhance the adoption of a public health intervention in urban India - Marcus Alexander, Laura Forastiere, Swati Gupta, Nicholas Christakis20. Friendship paradox21. Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society - Nicholas Christakis22. Friendship and Natural Selection - James H Fowler and Nicholas Christakis23. Kin Selection24. Social Network Biology and Human Chemosignaling25. For The Love Of Science Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Order Vasant Dhar's new book, Thinking With Machines

April 9, 2026Episode 1041 hr 14 min

Ep 104: Leslie Kay on Smell, Memory and the Brain

Your nose knows more than you think. Professor Leslie M. Kay joins Vasant Dhar to reveal how smell is wired directly into the brain's emotional core — and how every breath you take is quietly synchronising your mind. Useful Resources: 1. Leslie Kay2. GenBank3. National Library of Medicine4. Walter Jackson Freeman III5. Dynamical Systems6. Linda B. Buck and Richard Axel7. Dmitry Rinberg, Rinberg Lab8. S. Murray Sherman9. John Hopfield10. Christof Koch11. Joy Milne12. Aromha test13. Lucia F. Jacobs14. From chemotaxis to the cognitive map: The function of olfaction - Lucia F Jacobs 15. Patricia Churchland16. Andrew Sheriff, Northwestern Human Olfaction Lab17. Long-Range Respiratory and Theta Oscillation Networks Depend on Spatial Sensory Context - Andrew Sheriff, Guinevere Pandolfi, Vivian S Nguyen and Leslie M. Kay18. Evidence for a Chromatographic Model of Olfaction - Maxwell Mozell 19. COVID-19 and olfactory dysfunction: a looming wave of dementia? - Leslie M. Kay 20. SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure - UK Biobank 21. Asifa Majid22. Human Olfaction at the Intersection of Language, Culture, and Biology - Asifa Majid Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Order Vasant Dhar's new book, Thinking With Machines

March 12, 2026Episode 1031 hr 27 min

EP 103: Léon Bottou on Fiction Machines and the Limits of AI Alignment

What separates fluency from understanding? Léon Bottou joins Vasant Dhar in Episode 103, Brave New World, to explore the deep question at the heart of AI. Useful Resources: 1. Léon Bottou2. Léon Bottou - The Fiction Machine3. Hopfield Network in AI4. Yann LeCun5. J. L. McClelland, D.E. Rumelhart and G.E. Hinton - The Appeal of Parallel Distributed Processing6. Claude Shannon - Entropy and Redundancy in English 7. Marvin Minsky - Music, Mind and Meaning8. Stafford Beer9. Navier-Stokes Equations10. Terry Sejnowski - Parallel Networks that Learn to Pronounce English Text 11. Christopher D. Manning12. Brave New World Episode 58: Sam Bowman on ChatGPT & Controlling AI13. De Morgan's laws Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Order Vasant Dhar's new book, Thinking With Machines

February 12, 20261 hr 10 min

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 Sinha2. Eversource Capital3. India's Green Startups: Jayant Sinha and Sandeep Bhammer4. Nandan Nilekani5. Brave New World Episode 15: Nandan Nilekani on an Egalitarian Internet6. Brave New World Episode 50: Pramod Varma on India's Digital Empowerment 7. iSpirit8. Unique Identification Authority Of India9. Unified Payments Interface10. M-Pesa11. DigiYatra. 12. Australia has banned social media for kids under 16. 13. Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture, DEPA14. Paul Gruenwald, Global Chief Economist, S&P Global15. Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, James A. Robinson. 16. Neeraj Chopra17. Thinking with Machines, The Brave New World of AI: Vasant Dhar18. Battery Smart19. Nutrifresh20. Zero Cow21. RevFin22. Upside Foods23. Brave New World Episode 93: Uma Valeti on Cultivating Meat24. Brave New World Episode 101: Deepak Chopra On Consciousness and Reality25. Geoffrey Hinton26. Asimov's Laws27. Jonathan Haidt28. 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

January 8, 2026Episode 10254 min

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 Reports19. 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

December 11, 2025Episode 1011 hr 14 min

Ep 101: Deepak Chopra On Consciousness and Reality

Useful Resources: 1. Deepak Chopra2. Donald D. Hoffman3. Awakening: The Path to Freedom and Enlightenment - Deepak Chopra4. Seymour Reichlin5. Digital Dharma: How AI Can Elevate Spiritual Intelligence and Personal Wellbeing - Deepak Chopra6. The Hard Problem Of Consciousness7. Rosalyn Yalow8. Neuropeptides9. Psychoneuroimmunology 10. Candace Pert11. Molecules of Emotion - Candace Pert12. Richard Dawkins13. The Physics of Consciousness - Richard Dawkins & Brian Greene14. Naïve realism15. Stephen Hawking16. Qualia17. Panpsychism18. Advaita Vedanta19. Sufism20. What is Life?: With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches - Erwin Schrodinger21. Brave New World Episode 94: Anil Seth On The Science of Consciousness. 22. Wayne Dyer23. Ludwig Wittgenstein24. Jill Bolte Taylor25. My Stroke Of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor26. TED - My stroke of insight: Jill Bolte Taylor27. Scott Galloway Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Order Vasant Dhar's new book, Thinking With Machines

November 19, 20251 hr 1 min

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 Calm2. Recharge: Boosting Your Mental Battery, One Conversation at a Time - David Ko3. Jonathan Haidt4. Brave New World Episode 08: How Social Media Threatens Society5. Severance6. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams7. 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!

September 12, 20251 hr 26 min

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 Dhar3. 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 Pinker9. 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!

August 14, 2025Episode 981 hr 9 min

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 feedback31. 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!