dunc tank

Ed Viesturs - American Mountaineer

Ed Viesturs is the only American mountaineer to climb all 14 of the world's 8000m peaks, and he is the fifth person in world history to do so without supplemental oxygen.  We talked about what inspired him to climb, how he evaluates risk, and what comes after achieving your goals.

Norman Ohler - Nazis on Meth

Norman Ohler is a German novelist and historian, and author of the New York Times bestselling book, “Blitzed”, about drug use in Nazi Germany. We talked about how he uncovered it, why previous historians failed to see the signs, and why giving your kids speed chocolate was as acceptable as a cup of coffee.

Pete Penseyres - World Record Cyclist

Pete Penseyres is a cyclist who in 1986 set the world record for the fastest time across America on a bike.  We talked about what level of preparation it took to win the race, how he was able to train in between his full-time job, and why a taunt from a professional Tour de France cyclist pushed him into the race.

Jed Perl - The Art of Alexander Calder

Jed Perl is an art critic for The New York Review of Books and The New Republic.  He's the author of the biography, "Alexander Calder: The Conquest of Time", and we talked about the artist's work and his impact on sculpture.

Bethany McLean - Enron, Fraud, and Fracking

Bethany McLean is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and has written books about Enron, the 2008 financial crisis, and the fracking industry.  We talked about her role in the collapse of Enron, why fraud continues to fool the best minds on Wall Street, and whether businesses like the fracking industry (and even Tesla!) might be due to bust.

Sam Vaknin - Narcissism in the Age of Social Media

Sam Vaknin is a professor of psychology and the author of "Malignant Self-Love: Narcissism Revisited".  We talked about what narcissism is, how it has become an epidemic, and why Donald Trump will never see a therapist.

Dean Baker - Common Sense Economist

Dean Baker is the co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and is one of the few economists who predicted the collapse of the housing bubble.  You can read his blog at http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/

James Fallon - Psychopathy and Science

Dr. James Fallon is a neuroscientist, biologist, professor at UC Irvine, the founder of a stem cell research company, and author, who discovered one day as he was examining the brain scans of criminals that he had the brain of a psychopath.  He’s since given a Ted Talk (link) on the subject that’s been viewed over two million times, and I reached out recently to see if he wanted to talk. Our conversation ranged from Putin's brain to how violence passes through generations.

Glenn Greenwald - Brazil's Election

Glenn Greenwald is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who exposed the Snowden/NSA spying story in 2013.  He is also a co-founder of The Intercept.

Bill Ripple & Chris Wolf - Climate Change: A Warning

Professors William Ripple and Christopher Wolf are two of the authors of "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice", regarding the potentially calamitous effects of climate change on the not too distant horizon.  We talk about human extinction, climate denial, and what you can do to make a difference.

For those concerned about global environmental and climate challenges, the Alliance of World Scientists is still accepting signatures from scientists to sign their paper. There are currently about 21,000 scientist signatories from 184 countries that have added their names to this paper. If you are a scientist, you can sign at http://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/

 There is also an invitation for nonscientist individuals and all organizations to endorse the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice at http://www.scientistswarning.org/