We're joined by tech billionaire and investor Christian Angermayer to discuss the 'Next Human Agenda,' i.e., the technological bets he's taking and how they will shape the future of humanity (in terms of computing, health, society, and governments). Over the past 20 years, Christian has been involved in directly building a lot of unicorns and decacorns and has been involved in more than 50 IPOs or exits in the public stock market. Christian is an active thought leader himself, and is...

We welcomed the author of the new book "The Levelling", Mike O'Sullivan, who's spent 20 years thinking and writing on macro economy and politics. He also served as the Chief Investment Officer at Credit Suisse and is the CEO of Harvest Innovation Advisory. We cover the end of globalisation, the future of democracy, economics, finance, geopolitics, and nation-building in the post-globalisation era.   In the episode, we cover a range of topics:   -Assessment of Globalisation: Critical...

  In season 2, we kick-off with America's foremost foreign policy scholar, Dr. Joseph Nye, the former Assistant Secretary of Defense and former Dean of Harvard Kennedy School of Government, to talk about how the American Century has shaped our civilization and what lies ahead in the road.   Dr. Nye shares his profound insights on:   - His personal reflections from his latest released book   - The essence and impact of soft power, hard power and 'smart' power in shaping international...

On this African development-focused episode, we're joined by Dr. Pádraig Carmody, a distinguished professor at Trinity College, University of Dublin, and the author of the book "The New Scramble for Africa."   Professor Carmody guides us through a thought-provoking discussion:   -Unpacking the historical context of African scrambles and their enduring impact on the continent -Defining what a scramble is and how it shaped the socio-economic landscape of Africa -Examining the parallels between...

From the technology used to build pyramids by Ancient Egyptians to blockchain & AI today, there's tremendous continuity in how technologies developed. We're joined by Dr. Christian de Vartavan, a distinguished Egyptologist whose contributions include 10 seminal works in Egyptology and an impressive tally of 40 scientific discoveries. Beyond his expertise in Egyptology, Christian is also recognized as a technologist and an accomplished authority in blockchain and artificial intelligence...

In this episode, we sat down with Professor Dr. Salim Ayduz, a distinguished expert in Ottoman science and technology delving into the rich tapestry of technical innovations that helped create the Ottoman Empire's 600+ year tri-continental legacy.   In the episode, we cover:   -the forgotten pioneers of Ottoman science & technology -the social, political, and economic dynamics that influenced Ottoman innovation -comparative analysis of Ottoman and Western scientific and technological...

On this episode, we're joined by serial entrepreneur and CEO of Manna Bobby Healy (@realBobbyHealy) who runs one of the Top 5 drone delivery companies in the world. We also welcomed back a friend of the pod Pamir Sevincel, Partner at Blackbird. Join us as we talk about the ins and outs of a fundamental technology that'll terraform the way we live: last-mile drone delivery. In this episode, we cover: -Bobby's entrepreneurial journey and the lessons learned along the way -The genesis of Manna...

We're joined at Empasco by the former Prime Minister of Estonia Taavi Roivas, who ran and built both sets of organizations: leading the highest political office of one of the most technologically advanced EU governments and now also being a technology entrepreneur to a hard tech startup doing mobilities. In the episode, we cover: - the confluence of technology and politics in shaping the future- can you run governments like tech startups? Similarities and differences.- education & what...

In this episode, we're joined by one of the founding faculties of Stanford's technology ethics course. Professor Rob Reich is the author of the recently published book "System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong & How We Can Reboot." In the face of society-altering AI and advancing technologies, we confront pressing ethical and societal challenges. How do we address them effectively without letting technology wreak havoc? In the episode, we discuss:-how technology is reshaping our...

Centuries before the official Renaissance of Europe began as we deem it, there was a part of Europe (i.e. Muslim Spain) which already begun the 'Renaissance' and made the region a powerhouse of innovation and prosperity that would go on to shape the world we live in today. A tale of technical innovations, pluralistic cohabiting of various religions, and translation of ideas that formed our modern universities/libraries today. We uncover a part of history that is often overlooked; our host...

How to build a digital-native nation? How to use digital-native design to solve voter fraud and corruption? For an action-packed episode with an actual builder of digital governments, our host Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) takes the seat with one of the world’s most influential people in the field of digital governance, Siim Sikkut. (@sikkut) The man who led Estonia’s groundbreaking E-residency program and also played a builder role as the Estonian government’s former Chief Information Officer...

Why are some nations rich whilst others are poor? Why is Mexico much poorer than the United States? Why is Latin America so fundamentally different from North America?  How is it possible that an average American is 40 times richer than an average Sierra Leonean?  Is it climate, geography, culture, or could it be the ignorance of domestic leaders? Our ICP host Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) sits down for an exhilarating episode probing the fundamental reasons why nations develop differently...

Founded by the infamous Genghis Khan in 1206, the Mongol Empire created the 2nd largest kingdom in the history of the planet. What's less well known is that Mongol rule ushered in a plethora of technological innovation and development that shaped the formative years in trade & science infrastructure of a land mass spanning all the way to the East from Korea, through China, Central Asia, Russia, Persia and to even Eastern Europe parts like Crimea and modern day Ukraine. In an attempt to...

The defining periods in world history have always come about as a result of successful change management and revolutionary leadership. Reflecting on the last 2 decades of rapid flux coupled with  the ongoing global unrest in trade, politics, and commerce arising from a looming global recession, the Ukraine-Russia War and the after-effects of COVID19 calls for a timely occasion on  navigating through the factors leading to successful change management and leadership.  For an educative and...

China boasts the largest fintech ecosystem in the world having a penetration rate of 87%  and a total transaction volume of $51.8 trillion via mobile payments only (three times the country’s GDP). The country is setting strong examples for the rest of the world to follow as it continues to develop cashless innovation systems positing road maps and processes for a shared digital currency future.  The largely cashless economy is fundamentally changing the very nature of money as it emerges as...

60 gigatons of Carbon Dioxide (Co2) is discharged into the atmosphere every year. Co2 levels are now higher than they have been in at least 800,000 years making climate change the number 1 threat faced by mankind. What tech to invest in in order to 'unf*** the planet'? For a momentous & thrilling episode on understanding the successful approach of high-risk tech investing in combatting the climate change crises, our host at Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) sat down with Danijel Visevic...

Given how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is eating our civilization, it's essential to sketch out its first principles and ethical dimensions. We are joined by one of the world's leading AI/ML experts in former founder and co-lead at Google's AI ethical division, and the founder of Ethical AI LLC Margaret Mitchell (@mmitchell_ai) who speaks to our Empasco Co-Founder Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) on the fundamentals of artificial intelligence ethics and global value structures. Margaret has...

One of the world's foremost development economists Professor Sir Paul Collier from Oxford University, Blavatnik School of Government joins our host Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) for this breathtaking episode on poverty alleviation and turnarounds. Sir Paul has previously written 4 books on the topic of poverty alleviation, governance and sustainable growth including one of the most famous books in the development literature called 'The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and...

We're joined by the Dean of Social Sciences at New York University and Professor of Political Science David Stasavage (@stasavage) who wrote the recent book (The Decline and Rise of Democracy). We talk about: - the first principles and definitions of what we exactly mean by 'democracy' - a compressed summary of the origins, and pre-17th century non-European early forms of democracy in the Islamic world, China, Africa. - democracy, institution-building, and state development in early...

On the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, we welcomed New-York Times Best Selling Author Charles Fishman (@cfishman), who wrote the book 'One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission that flew us to the moon (https://www.amazon.com/One-Giant-Leap-Untold-Story/dp/1501106295/). We talk about: - the factors that led to the success of one of the largest government-funded deep-science technology projects. - spinoff technologies and effects of Apollo on hardware and software we do today -...

CEO at Mattereum, Vinay Gupta (@leashless), the man who lead the launch of the world's second-biggest cryptocurrency Ethereum at its outset, joins us for a very special third episode on the Innovation Civilization Podcast. We cover the history of money starting from ancient humans to today, the fundamental tech and thesis of crypto along with what emerging market policymakers & citizens can do to leverage this foundational technology. We are also joined by Empasco Partner Artur Safaryan...

In our second episode, our Co-Founder Waheed Rahman (@iwaheedo) is joined by British historian and author Dr. Anton Howes (@antonhowes)  where we uncover the roots of innovation in the modern world, including how to create innovation ecosystems with a focus on 16th-19th century Britain as a case-study.  Dr. Anton is the Head of Innovation Research at The Entrepreneurs Network and released his latest book 'Arts and Minds: How the Royal Society of Arts Changed a Nation'. He's also a former...

In this first episode, our host Waheedur Rahman (@iwaheedo) is joined by Pamir Sevincel (@pamirsevincel) from Up Partners. The first part of the episode covers the history, formulation, and ontological dimensions of ancient cities. The second part covers the latest developments in the urban air mobility space, solutionizing key 21st-century urban transportation problems, venture models for this foundational eVTOL technology, and the near-term future of cities in the skies.

A brief prologue to explain the baseline thesis behind the series of episodes that are to follow.