303 - Bruce Damer (Origins of Life/Future in Space)

02/09/18 • 189 min

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Tangentially Speaking with Christopher Ryan

Bruce Damer is a Canadian-American multi-disciplinary scientist, designer, and author. He collaborates with colleagues developing and testing a new model for the origin of life on Earth and in the design of spacecraft architectures to provide a viable path for expansion of human civilization beyond the Earth. He began his career in the 1980s developing some of the earliest user interfaces for personal computers, led a community in the 1990s bringing the first multi-user virtual worlds to the Internet, and since 2000 supported NASA and the space industry on numerous simulations and spacecraft designs. He has spent 25 years chronicling the history of computing in his DigiBarn Computer Museum and curates archives of counterculture figures such as Dr. Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna and others. He currently serves as Principal Scientist at DigitalSpace; Associate Researcher in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering at UC Santa Cruz; Associate of the NASA Astrobiology Center; Member of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, and Founding Director of the Contact Consortium. He also served as Visiting Scholar at the University of Washington and as a member of the Faculty at Charles University, Prague. Bruce also hosts a podcast called Levity Zone.

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302 - Johann Hari (Author/Journalist)

Johann is the author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections -- both of which are largely about the traumas created by trying to live in a pathogenic society. He's a brilliant writer and conversationalist. In the first part of this podcast, we're in his hotel room in Beverly Hills (Thanks, Rupert Murdock!). The second part is in my car, headed south on the 405. I had a great time hanging with Johann, and hope you enjoy it, too.

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304 - Zhana Vrangalova (Sex Researcher and Educator)

Zhana is a NYC-based sex researcher, writer, and educator. She has a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University, where she studied how different aspects of sexuality (especially casual sex/promiscuity and mostly heterosexuality) are linked to health and well-being. Currently an adjunct professor at the NYU Psychology department, Zhana teaches the first Human Sexuality course this department has offered in a long, long time.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe