Origins Podcast with Ryan McGranaghan Tue, 11 Aug 2026 04:00:01 -0400 http://originspodcast.co en-us © 2026 Origins Podcast with Ryan McGranaghan yes 00f5ae89-a5f3-5072-8c4c-7712cf634a17 Ryan McGranaghan episodic false Origins are conversations with thought-leaders across an eclectic mix of disciplines (science, engineering, art, and design), crafted specifically for the category-defying society that we live in. We explore the thoughts, passions, and stories that defined these pioneers’ fascinating trajectories, arriving at the origins of the pivotal moments across their lives. Draw inspiration for your own trajectory from the intellectual and spiritual electricity of these eclectic conversations.]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) science, engineering, art, design, culture, space, technology, inspiration, flourishing, complexity, artificial intelligence, conversation Ryan McGranaghan https://storage.buzzsprout.com/r04cfgqzx0819u1f78kln4a1sxl5?.jpg Origins Podcast with Ryan McGranaghan http://originspodcast.co David Germano - Ancient wisdom for modern (and future) flourishing David Germano - Ancient wisdom for modern (and future) flourishing David Germano is an educator, scientist, and renown Tibetologist. But to let his life and work be merely a list would be an irreparable simplification, inappropriate as framing for this conversation, and a blindness to the genuine teachings of care and loving-kindness that can be found and felt from deep in his work. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez
Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> David Germano is an educator, scientist, and renown Tibetologist. But to let his life and work be merely a list would be an irreparable simplification, inappropriate as framing for this conversation, and a blindness to the genuine teachings of care and loving-kindness that can be found and felt from deep in his work. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez
Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-19622342 Tue, 11 Aug 2026 04:00:00 -0400 5502 9 3 full false The Great Askers (episode 2): C Thi Nguyen and Julio Ottino The Great Askers (episode 2): C Thi Nguyen and Julio Ottino The Great Askers is an occasional Origins Podcast extra, where we nourish a sensibility of asking and cultivate great askers by exploring it with people who have singularly practiced it. Find the inaugural episode here. 

So we occasionally on this show add to a series called ‘the great askers’ to center the philosophy and practice of asking questions. We do this by talking with the people asking the most meaningful, searching, even troubling questions and on their process for constructing those questions.

Here, the conversation continues with scientist Julio Ottino and philosopher C. Thi Nguyen. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

  • Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn (06:00)
  • Where do our concepts come from? (06:20)
  • Leonardo magazine (09:00)
  • Reiner Knizia (19:20)
  • mu (32:20)
  • Socrates' irony (33:00)
  • value capture (38:00)
  • art and technology and science (40:30)
  • theory about the difference between art and science (45:20)
  • Bernard Suits (47:30)
  • Victor Vasarely (56:00)
  • 1905-1925 a pivotal period (57:20)
  • Autotelic experience (59:30)
  • technical activity v. game activity (01:00:00)
  • break-with v. breakthrough (01:04:00)
  • the flourishing of science (01:06:30)
  • The Spirit of Hope by Byung-Chul Han (01:10:45)
  • What are your hopeful questions? (01:11:20)
  • Maria Lugones (01:12:00)
  • Find Thi online: Website
  • Find Julio online: Website

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez
Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> The Great Askers is an occasional Origins Podcast extra, where we nourish a sensibility of asking and cultivate great askers by exploring it with people who have singularly practiced it. Find the inaugural episode here. 

So we occasionally on this show add to a series called ‘the great askers’ to center the philosophy and practice of asking questions. We do this by talking with the people asking the most meaningful, searching, even troubling questions and on their process for constructing those questions.

Here, the conversation continues with scientist Julio Ottino and philosopher C. Thi Nguyen. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

  • Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn (06:00)
  • Where do our concepts come from? (06:20)
  • Leonardo magazine (09:00)
  • Reiner Knizia (19:20)
  • mu (32:20)
  • Socrates' irony (33:00)
  • value capture (38:00)
  • art and technology and science (40:30)
  • theory about the difference between art and science (45:20)
  • Bernard Suits (47:30)
  • Victor Vasarely (56:00)
  • 1905-1925 a pivotal period (57:20)
  • Autotelic experience (59:30)
  • technical activity v. game activity (01:00:00)
  • break-with v. breakthrough (01:04:00)
  • the flourishing of science (01:06:30)
  • The Spirit of Hope by Byung-Chul Han (01:10:45)
  • What are your hopeful questions? (01:11:20)
  • Maria Lugones (01:12:00)
  • Find Thi online: Website
  • Find Julio online: Website

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez
Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Buzzsprout-19439412 Tue, 07 Jul 2026 04:00:00 -0400 4792 9 2 full false Introducing Season Nine: Trailer and a meditation on the shadow side of vulnerability Introducing Season Nine: Trailer and a meditation on the shadow side of vulnerability CORRECTION: Season Nine will commence on July 7, not June 30

Origins Podcast Website

Hello friends, a new season of Origins arrives on July 7!

I can't genuinely describe my experience in the world right now without the term confusion. 

Confused in a deep sense: feeling a growing distance between the world as I experience it and the world we seem to be creating together.

The appropriate response to bewilderment is not certainty but deeper conversation. That has always been the purpose of Origins: A person bewildered by the world turning toward another person and asking: How do you live here?

So strangely, out of vulnerability there is capacity. Out of confusion there is hope.

The episodes in this season are meant to be companions in that work. They are certainly companions in mine.

What we do now will be oriented toward creating those sites at which vulnerability becomes capacity: belonging and solidarity. I hope each episode becomes an encounter with flourishing. 

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

]]> CORRECTION: Season Nine will commence on July 7, not June 30

Origins Podcast Website

Hello friends, a new season of Origins arrives on July 7!

I can't genuinely describe my experience in the world right now without the term confusion. 

Confused in a deep sense: feeling a growing distance between the world as I experience it and the world we seem to be creating together.

The appropriate response to bewilderment is not certainty but deeper conversation. That has always been the purpose of Origins: A person bewildered by the world turning toward another person and asking: How do you live here?

So strangely, out of vulnerability there is capacity. Out of confusion there is hope.

The episodes in this season are meant to be companions in that work. They are certainly companions in mine.

What we do now will be oriented toward creating those sites at which vulnerability becomes capacity: belonging and solidarity. I hope each episode becomes an encounter with flourishing. 

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-19370345 Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:00:00 -0400 734 9 1 full false Dennis Snower and David Sloan Wilson - Rethinking economics for flourishing people and planet Dennis Snower and David Sloan Wilson - Rethinking economics for flourishing people and planet The fundamental challenges confronting humanity are not the failure of particular nations or institutions or businesses or civil organizations, but rather the disconnect between our economic, political, and social systems. Dennis Snower and David Sloan Wilson, converging economics and evolution, have a plan to ameliorate the decoupling of economic prosperity and political success from social and environmental prosperity, a decoupling that destabilizes our planet.


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez
Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> The fundamental challenges confronting humanity are not the failure of particular nations or institutions or businesses or civil organizations, but rather the disconnect between our economic, political, and social systems. Dennis Snower and David Sloan Wilson, converging economics and evolution, have a plan to ameliorate the decoupling of economic prosperity and political success from social and environmental prosperity, a decoupling that destabilizes our planet.


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez
Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-18934919 Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 -0400 4590 full false Guru Madhavan - Systems consciousness, repairing what is worn, and life-instilling creations Guru Madhavan - Systems consciousness, repairing what is worn, and life-instilling creations Guru Madhavan reverences the world and all that is in it. Guru is an engineer, but his conception of engineering is more vast than we typically assign to the role. To it he brings a systems consciousness that widens the field in recognition of its entanglement with the social and cultural.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media


]]> Guru Madhavan reverences the world and all that is in it. Guru is an engineer, but his conception of engineering is more vast than we typically assign to the role. To it he brings a systems consciousness that widens the field in recognition of its entanglement with the social and cultural.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media


]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-18767411 Tue, 03 Mar 2026 04:00:00 -0500 4397 8 9 full false Francesca Samsel - Vulnerability, making a new language, and pursuing the irrational Francesca Samsel - Vulnerability, making a new language, and pursuing the irrational Francesca Samsel is crafting a new language for our world. That is, she crosses art, science, and visualization to open new ways of understanding and engaging with the natural world, not just visually but across the sensorial spectrum. She recognizes the inextricably social element to this, too, and her work raises our capacity to collaborate, and in the process, alters our sense of what scientific inquiry is and can (and perhaps needs to) be. Her work as her life are teachers we need for the world we are walking into. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Francesca Samsel is crafting a new language for our world. That is, she crosses art, science, and visualization to open new ways of understanding and engaging with the natural world, not just visually but across the sensorial spectrum. She recognizes the inextricably social element to this, too, and her work raises our capacity to collaborate, and in the process, alters our sense of what scientific inquiry is and can (and perhaps needs to) be. Her work as her life are teachers we need for the world we are walking into. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-18525538 Tue, 20 Jan 2026 04:00:00 -0500 3524 8 8 full false Malka Older - Worldbuilding creativity Malka Older - Worldbuilding creativity Malka Older makes a life at the crossroads of our existing and future worlds. Between research into the sociology of organizations, on-the-ground work in humanitarian aid and disaster risk reduction, and acclaimed writing of speculative and science fiction, Older brilliantly, beautifully, uncommonly lives the great paradox in front of us all: to hold at once the two truths of lived experience and imagined future. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Malka Older makes a life at the crossroads of our existing and future worlds. Between research into the sociology of organizations, on-the-ground work in humanitarian aid and disaster risk reduction, and acclaimed writing of speculative and science fiction, Older brilliantly, beautifully, uncommonly lives the great paradox in front of us all: to hold at once the two truths of lived experience and imagined future. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Buzzsprout-18236857 Tue, 25 Nov 2025 04:00:00 -0500 4400 8 7 full false Mette Miriam Böll - Insisting on compassion Mette Miriam Böll - Insisting on compassion Biologist, philosopher, educator, facilitator, and historian of science Mette Miriam Böll is embodiment of the kind of life that emerges when we accept, recognize, and revere our profound interconnectedness. Her scholarship as her life are nourishment for returning to the task we are all called to: to human well, at once simple and complex, individual and civilizational. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Biologist, philosopher, educator, facilitator, and historian of science Mette Miriam Böll is embodiment of the kind of life that emerges when we accept, recognize, and revere our profound interconnectedness. Her scholarship as her life are nourishment for returning to the task we are all called to: to human well, at once simple and complex, individual and civilizational. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-18074516 Tue, 28 Oct 2025 04:00:00 -0400 4109 8 6 full false Dan Jay - Doubt, collectivity, and transformative creativity Dan Jay - Doubt, collectivity, and transformative creativity Dr. Dan Jay has a mission to inspire where art and science meet. His life has been spent in the liminal and generative space between and among these domains of inquiry that are too often considered separate, distinct, even opposing. Yet, it is transformative creativity only possible from the co-mingling and conversation of art and science that we seem to be called to in the 21st century. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media


]]> Dr. Dan Jay has a mission to inspire where art and science meet. His life has been spent in the liminal and generative space between and among these domains of inquiry that are too often considered separate, distinct, even opposing. Yet, it is transformative creativity only possible from the co-mingling and conversation of art and science that we seem to be called to in the 21st century. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media


]]> Buzzsprout-17800881 Tue, 16 Sep 2025 04:00:00 -0400 3776 8 5 full false Zachary Ugolnik - Science & spirituality, heightened states of community, and new conceptions of flourishing Zachary Ugolnik - Science & spirituality, heightened states of community, and new conceptions of flourishing Zachary Ugolnik has for years been charting a new path that refuses the tired and inanimate narrative about the separateness of science and spirituality, reason and religion. In his life we find rich possibility when those old illusory dichotomies are discarded, and from that possibility perhaps new wisdom for creating a society full of care and flourishing, one that embraces our inherent needfulness and borrows from theology, ecology, and the social sciences. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Zachary Ugolnik has for years been charting a new path that refuses the tired and inanimate narrative about the separateness of science and spirituality, reason and religion. In his life we find rich possibility when those old illusory dichotomies are discarded, and from that possibility perhaps new wisdom for creating a society full of care and flourishing, one that embraces our inherent needfulness and borrows from theology, ecology, and the social sciences. 


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-17579348 Tue, 29 Jul 2025 04:00:00 -0400 3900 8 4 full false Jennifer Wiseman - Ultra-deep fields, the numinous, and an omnipresent call to wonder and awe Jennifer Wiseman - Ultra-deep fields, the numinous, and an omnipresent call to wonder and awe Dr. Jennifer Wiseman gives expression to our cosmos, as a pioneering astrophysicist, an outspoken advocate for science within policy and the public, as well as a person of faith. Her's are sensibilities of a scientist, a theologian, and a human being in awe of the universe, recognizing that these parts of ourselves need not be in opposition but rather in beautiful and enriching conversation. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Dr. Jennifer Wiseman gives expression to our cosmos, as a pioneering astrophysicist, an outspoken advocate for science within policy and the public, as well as a person of faith. Her's are sensibilities of a scientist, a theologian, and a human being in awe of the universe, recognizing that these parts of ourselves need not be in opposition but rather in beautiful and enriching conversation. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-17418581 Tue, 01 Jul 2025 04:00:00 -0400 4169 8 3 full false Susan Magsamen - Neuroscience, NeuroArts, and the mystery that life really is Susan Magsamen - Neuroscience, NeuroArts, and the mystery that life really is Susan Magsamen makes her life at the frontier: the frontier of neuroscience, of institutional change, of the intersection of art and science. Her's is a life full of wisdom for how to live amongst mystery and befriend complexity.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Susan Magsamen makes her life at the frontier: the frontier of neuroscience, of institutional change, of the intersection of art and science. Her's is a life full of wisdom for how to live amongst mystery and befriend complexity.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-17185305 Tue, 20 May 2025 04:00:00 -0400 4230 8 2 full false Season Eight Trailer: A meditation on conversation and the collective narrative of our time Season Eight Trailer: A meditation on conversation and the collective narrative of our time Origins Podcast Website

Hello friends, a new season of Origins arrives next week, on Tuesday, May 20. 

This next chapter of Origins is about exploring conversation, that great practice of placing two things next to one another and allowing them to be astonished by the other. It is also about exploring the collective narrative of our time. 

This trailer is both introduction and meditation on how Origins is more than a podcast: a space for collective inquiry into living well in a fractured world.

Over on Substack we’re cultivating not just conversation but community—a space for listening, reflection, and co-creation. This season, you’ll find templates born from the gatherings surrounding some of these episodes: guides for more generative encounters, wider conversations, and more generous questions. These tools aren’t prescriptions, but invitations.

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

]]> Origins Podcast Website

Hello friends, a new season of Origins arrives next week, on Tuesday, May 20. 

This next chapter of Origins is about exploring conversation, that great practice of placing two things next to one another and allowing them to be astonished by the other. It is also about exploring the collective narrative of our time. 

This trailer is both introduction and meditation on how Origins is more than a podcast: a space for collective inquiry into living well in a fractured world.

Over on Substack we’re cultivating not just conversation but community—a space for listening, reflection, and co-creation. This season, you’ll find templates born from the gatherings surrounding some of these episodes: guides for more generative encounters, wider conversations, and more generous questions. These tools aren’t prescriptions, but invitations.

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-17173171 Fri, 16 May 2025 04:00:00 -0400 689 8 1 trailer false David Woods - the science of resilience, graceful extensibility, and facilitating insight David Woods - the science of resilience, graceful extensibility, and facilitating insight Few concepts are more important to our society than resilience. Agnostic of domain, of nation, culture, and scale (as vital, indeed, to the individual life as to the planetary civilization), it would be impossible to overstate the pressure on us to understand it. If resilience is a core competency of our time, it would not be hyperbole to say that Dr. David Woods one of our most important thinkers. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Few concepts are more important to our society than resilience. Agnostic of domain, of nation, culture, and scale (as vital, indeed, to the individual life as to the planetary civilization), it would be impossible to overstate the pressure on us to understand it. If resilience is a core competency of our time, it would not be hyperbole to say that Dr. David Woods one of our most important thinkers. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Buzzsprout-16854280 Wed, 26 Mar 2025 04:00:00 -0400 4324 7 11 full false Paul Smaldino - Social identities, collective intelligence, and an ambling open life Paul Smaldino - Social identities, collective intelligence, and an ambling open life Paul Smaldino is an explorer. That might seem like an odd way to describe a professor of cognitive science, but anyone who has glanced at his biography will recognize that he lives his life in exploration. His scholarship as his life are inspiration for keeping the lines of inquiry wide open and the things we can discover in doing so.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Paul Smaldino is an explorer. That might seem like an odd way to describe a professor of cognitive science, but anyone who has glanced at his biography will recognize that he lives his life in exploration. His scholarship as his life are inspiration for keeping the lines of inquiry wide open and the things we can discover in doing so.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-16503210 Tue, 28 Jan 2025 04:00:00 -0500 4340 7 10 full false John Paul Lederach - Peacebuilding, critical yeast, and the language of imagination John Paul Lederach - Peacebuilding, critical yeast, and the language of imagination I've been following John Paul Lederach's work for years, finding the words he uses inordinately relevant to all of the details and spaces of my life. John Paul is Professor of International Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame. He has been a teacher to me across time and space and I believe the ideas he brings into the world are teachers we all need for the world we are walking into.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> I've been following John Paul Lederach's work for years, finding the words he uses inordinately relevant to all of the details and spaces of my life. John Paul is Professor of International Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame. He has been a teacher to me across time and space and I believe the ideas he brings into the world are teachers we all need for the world we are walking into.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-16394060 Tue, 07 Jan 2025 04:00:00 -0500 4389 7 9 full false Creating encounters with flourishing: A 'salon' at the National Academy of Sciences Creating encounters with flourishing: A 'salon' at the National Academy of Sciences Flourishing is not a fixed state; it is an unfolding. In this time of rupture we need encounters with flourishing, to know it in our lived experiences individually and collectively. In this transformative event on December 12, 2024, Ryan McGranaghan, host of the Origins Podcast and founder of the Flourishing Salons, engaged in a moving conversation with four profound provocateurs and a wider community of artists, designers, engineers, scientists, educators, and contemplatives. The event was co-hosted by Flourishing Salons and the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS) DC Art and Science Evening Rendezvous (DASER).


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Flourishing is not a fixed state; it is an unfolding. In this time of rupture we need encounters with flourishing, to know it in our lived experiences individually and collectively. In this transformative event on December 12, 2024, Ryan McGranaghan, host of the Origins Podcast and founder of the Flourishing Salons, engaged in a moving conversation with four profound provocateurs and a wider community of artists, designers, engineers, scientists, educators, and contemplatives. The event was co-hosted by Flourishing Salons and the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS) DC Art and Science Evening Rendezvous (DASER).


Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-16331665 Tue, 24 Dec 2024 04:00:00 -0500 6423 7 8 full false Talia Stroud - Digital communities, civic signals, and connective democracy Talia Stroud - Digital communities, civic signals, and connective democracy Natalie (Talia, as she goes by) Stroud has for years been studying the ways that our lives online show up in and shape our lives together. Her scholarship as her life are unexampled guides to the tumult, the challenges, and the opportunity presented by the advent and evolution of digital media.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Natalie (Talia, as she goes by) Stroud has for years been studying the ways that our lives online show up in and shape our lives together. Her scholarship as her life are unexampled guides to the tumult, the challenges, and the opportunity presented by the advent and evolution of digital media.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-16037262 Tue, 05 Nov 2024 04:00:00 -0500 3875 7 7 full false Simon DeDeo - Studying society, the science of science, and collisions with the strange Simon DeDeo - Studying society, the science of science, and collisions with the strange Simon DeDeo's inquiry takes on the most immense topics: astrophysics, history, epistemology, culture. He brings the precision of a physicist, the capability of a data scientist, and the sensibility of a philosopher to thinking about how we live our lives; and his polymathic life might be the example we need to make sense of the world we are walking into, one requiring an evolution to our way of studying and understanding.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Simon DeDeo's inquiry takes on the most immense topics: astrophysics, history, epistemology, culture. He brings the precision of a physicist, the capability of a data scientist, and the sensibility of a philosopher to thinking about how we live our lives; and his polymathic life might be the example we need to make sense of the world we are walking into, one requiring an evolution to our way of studying and understanding.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Buzzsprout-15838158 Tue, 01 Oct 2024 04:00:00 -0400 4582 7 6 full false Lindy Elkins-Tanton - Recognizing flourishing, leading teams, and an education for living Lindy Elkins-Tanton - Recognizing flourishing, leading teams, and an education for living Lindy Elkins-Tanton is one of the world's foremost scientists. Couple that with an unprecedented understanding of how teams work and a sense of care that is exceedingly rare in our world and you recognize her for what she is: altogether unexampled. Her's is a story of exploration, of universe, of planet, of society, and of self. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Lindy Elkins-Tanton is one of the world's foremost scientists. Couple that with an unprecedented understanding of how teams work and a sense of care that is exceedingly rare in our world and you recognize her for what she is: altogether unexampled. Her's is a story of exploration, of universe, of planet, of society, and of self. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-15562816 Tue, 13 Aug 2024 04:00:00 -0400 3390 7 5 full false Jane Hirshfield - Possibility, Poetry, and a Life of Attention Jane Hirshfield - Possibility, Poetry, and a Life of Attention It would feel wrong to place labels on Jane Hirshfield. Language would fail to reach there, ironic for someone who has devoted their life to the practice of poetry and the practice of Zen Buddhism. Jane is a modern master, change-maker, and wise and winsome voice.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> It would feel wrong to place labels on Jane Hirshfield. Language would fail to reach there, ironic for someone who has devoted their life to the practice of poetry and the practice of Zen Buddhism. Jane is a modern master, change-maker, and wise and winsome voice.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-15303741 Tue, 25 Jun 2024 04:00:00 -0400 4949 7 4 full false Agustín Fuentes - A master class in anthropology and a life lived among complexity Agustín Fuentes - A master class in anthropology and a life lived among complexity Agustín Fuentes reads a multi-million year history of our world, a student of its myriad lessons that often subvert unquestioned modern narratives and the problematic ways we've arrived at them. His is an anthropological, ecological, refreshingly unalloyed sensibility, an uncommon concoction whose life of scholarship and insight illuminate what we all might need to cultivate for the world we are walking into. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Agustín Fuentes reads a multi-million year history of our world, a student of its myriad lessons that often subvert unquestioned modern narratives and the problematic ways we've arrived at them. His is an anthropological, ecological, refreshingly unalloyed sensibility, an uncommon concoction whose life of scholarship and insight illuminate what we all might need to cultivate for the world we are walking into. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-15093696 Tue, 21 May 2024 04:00:00 -0400 3434 7 3 full false Albert-László Barabási - Network science, breakthrough orientation, and a life made around discovery Albert-László Barabási - Network science, breakthrough orientation, and a life made around discovery Albert-László Barabási thinks in networks and his scholarship, as his life, is embodiment of the explorative, imaginative, and generative nature of networks. It would be difficult to imagine a person better suited to steward us through the innate and seemingly universal tendency of things to connect to each other and all of its implications.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media<

]]> Albert-László Barabási thinks in networks and his scholarship, as his life, is embodiment of the explorative, imaginative, and generative nature of networks. It would be difficult to imagine a person better suited to steward us through the innate and seemingly universal tendency of things to connect to each other and all of its implications.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media<

]]> Buzzsprout-14888405 Tue, 16 Apr 2024 04:00:00 -0400 4483 7 2 full false Origins and Ongoingness: Thoughts on Season Seven Origins and Ongoingness: Thoughts on Season Seven Hello friends, a new season of Origins is coming NEXT WEEK. Last season of this show was a season of flourishing. The episodes ahead we not be a season of something in particular but a movement toward process, toward open-endedness, toward unsettledness; of discipline, of intellect, of being. Great scientific breakthroughs are discoveries of process, and the great discoveries of society and our own lives will be the same. 

Thank you for listening and I'm excited to explore together each of the coming guests, and the exhilarating glimpses they provide into ourselves and our society along the way.

Episode transcript, with links

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter




]]> Hello friends, a new season of Origins is coming NEXT WEEK. Last season of this show was a season of flourishing. The episodes ahead we not be a season of something in particular but a movement toward process, toward open-endedness, toward unsettledness; of discipline, of intellect, of being. Great scientific breakthroughs are discoveries of process, and the great discoveries of society and our own lives will be the same. 

Thank you for listening and I'm excited to explore together each of the coming guests, and the exhilarating glimpses they provide into ourselves and our society along the way.

Episode transcript, with links

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter




]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-14840396 Tue, 09 Apr 2024 04:00:00 -0400 477 7 1 trailer false The Great Askers (episode 1): Sara Hendren and Krista Tippett The Great Askers (episode 1): Sara Hendren and Krista Tippett Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter and the post introducing Great Asking

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by Agasthya Pradhan Shenoy (Swelo)

]]> Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter and the post introducing Great Asking

Show Notes:

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by Agasthya Pradhan Shenoy (Swelo)

]]> Buzzsprout-14394814 Tue, 30 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0500 4300 6 11 full false James Evans - Cultural observatories, knowledge communities, and a life resplendent with ideas James Evans - Cultural observatories, knowledge communities, and a life resplendent with ideas James Evans' life is one resplendent with ideas. His trajectory into research and learning in areas as wide as network science, collective intelligence, computational social science, and even how knowledge is created, is as irreducible as it is exhilarating, and is a beacon in disorienting times marked by seemingly accelerating paces of change. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo

]]> James Evans' life is one resplendent with ideas. His trajectory into research and learning in areas as wide as network science, collective intelligence, computational social science, and even how knowledge is created, is as irreducible as it is exhilarating, and is a beacon in disorienting times marked by seemingly accelerating paces of change. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo

]]> Buzzsprout-14275523 Tue, 09 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0500 4693 6 10 full false Ingrid Daubechies - The "Godmother of digital image" on the beauty of the world Ingrid Daubechies - The "Godmother of digital image" on the beauty of the world Ingrid Daubechies is endlessly, irrepressibly, beautifully curious. She is a Belgian physicist and mathematician whose scientific achievements have rippled across society in all directions for the past 35 years. But, more than that, she's a fierce champion of diversity and equality, in math and science, in women's rights, in opportunity. To sit with Ingrid, her math and her life, is to illuminate our world and inspire us to imagine other worlds. 

Origins Podcast Website


Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ingrid Daubechies is endlessly, irrepressibly, beautifully curious. She is a Belgian physicist and mathematician whose scientific achievements have rippled across society in all directions for the past 35 years. But, more than that, she's a fierce champion of diversity and equality, in math and science, in women's rights, in opportunity. To sit with Ingrid, her math and her life, is to illuminate our world and inspire us to imagine other worlds. 

Origins Podcast Website


Flourishing Commons Newsletter


Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-14046088 Tue, 28 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0500 3584 6 9 full false Mark Granovetter - Weak ties, living questions, and the history and future of social science Mark Granovetter - Weak ties, living questions, and the history and future of social science Mark Granovetter has made and remade our understanding of social networks, social theory, collective action, and economic sociology, making and remaking our world in the process. It would not be hyperbole to say that few living scholars have had the influence of Mark Granovetter. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Mark Granovetter has made and remade our understanding of social networks, social theory, collective action, and economic sociology, making and remaking our world in the process. It would not be hyperbole to say that few living scholars have had the influence of Mark Granovetter. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-13877919 Tue, 31 Oct 2023 04:00:00 -0400 3657 6 8 full false Tina Eliassi-Rad - A master class in network thinking and the kind of life it makes Tina Eliassi-Rad - A master class in network thinking and the kind of life it makes Tina Eliassi-Rad is a network science pioneer, and an intrepid explorer of where network science shows up in our world and how we understand that. Her work, as her life, falls across network science, complexity, artificial intelligence, and commitments to democracy and equality, itself a constellation of experiences and literacies befitting our increasingly complex world.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Music swelo

]]> Tina Eliassi-Rad is a network science pioneer, and an intrepid explorer of where network science shows up in our world and how we understand that. Her work, as her life, falls across network science, complexity, artificial intelligence, and commitments to democracy and equality, itself a constellation of experiences and literacies befitting our increasingly complex world.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Music swelo

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-13696369 Tue, 03 Oct 2023 04:00:00 -0400 3517 6 7 full false Judith Donath - Technology, trust, and what holds society together Judith Donath - Technology, trust, and what holds society together Judith Donath is a design thinker for some of the most important theory for how people interact in online spaces, drawing on evolutionary biology, architecture, ethnography, cognitive science. She just might be the voice we need for the multi-media multiscale world we're walking into.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Artwork Cristina Gonzalez

Music swelo

]]> Judith Donath is a design thinker for some of the most important theory for how people interact in online spaces, drawing on evolutionary biology, architecture, ethnography, cognitive science. She just might be the voice we need for the multi-media multiscale world we're walking into.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Artwork Cristina Gonzalez

Music swelo

]]> Buzzsprout-13472878 Fri, 01 Sep 2023 04:00:00 -0400 4445 6 6 full false C. Thi Nguyen - This conversation will change how you see the world C. Thi Nguyen - This conversation will change how you see the world There is something irresistible about the way C. Thi Nguyen thinks about and structures the world. From the lenses of trust, art, games, and communities he thinks about seemingly everything. In each of these topics, he's written pieces that I consider to be among the most important works on them.

Origins Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Artwork Cristina Gonzalez

Music swelo

]]> There is something irresistible about the way C. Thi Nguyen thinks about and structures the world. From the lenses of trust, art, games, and communities he thinks about seemingly everything. In each of these topics, he's written pieces that I consider to be among the most important works on them.

Origins Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

Artwork Cristina Gonzalez

Music swelo

]]> Buzzsprout-13281129 Tue, 25 Jul 2023 04:00:00 -0400 4539 6 5 full true Paul Wong - Reinventing cybernetics and composing a life Paul Wong - Reinventing cybernetics and composing a life We find ourselves living in a time of great complexity and flux, where the very fabric of our societies is being rewoven by the rise of artificial intelligence and the interplay of complex systems. How do we make sense of a world that is undeniably interconnected, with increasingly porous boundaries between nature and culture, human and machine, science and art? Paul Wong is reshaping that conversation, drawing on science, philosophy, and art.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> We find ourselves living in a time of great complexity and flux, where the very fabric of our societies is being rewoven by the rise of artificial intelligence and the interplay of complex systems. How do we make sense of a world that is undeniably interconnected, with increasingly porous boundaries between nature and culture, human and machine, science and art? Paul Wong is reshaping that conversation, drawing on science, philosophy, and art.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-13027603 Tue, 13 Jun 2023 04:00:00 -0400 3837 6 4 full false Dani Bassett and Perry Zurn - Understanding curiosity, nourishing a life, and how thoughts move Dani Bassett and Perry Zurn - Understanding curiosity, nourishing a life, and how thoughts move Twins Dani Bassett and Perry Zurn are curious. Their work, individually and together, gives new conception and language to what curiosity is, the work that it does in the world. These are human beings of intelligence and integrity and deep care, and their reification of curiosity might just be a generative narrative of our time. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Twins Dani Bassett and Perry Zurn are curious. Their work, individually and together, gives new conception and language to what curiosity is, the work that it does in the world. These are human beings of intelligence and integrity and deep care, and their reification of curiosity might just be a generative narrative of our time. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-12936043 Tue, 30 May 2023 04:00:00 -0400 4129 6 3 full false Julio Ottino - chaos, the capacity for emergence, and timeless ideas Julio Ottino - chaos, the capacity for emergence, and timeless ideas Every so often someone comes along whose thinking and work inspire you with the kind of awe that always feels new and fills you with an energy that brings vibrancy to life. Julio Mario Ottino is one of these people. Pulling from science, technology, and art, creating entirely new spaces in their convergence, he has transformed how to think about discovery and creativity.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media




]]> Every so often someone comes along whose thinking and work inspire you with the kind of awe that always feels new and fills you with an energy that brings vibrancy to life. Julio Mario Ottino is one of these people. Pulling from science, technology, and art, creating entirely new spaces in their convergence, he has transformed how to think about discovery and creativity.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:


Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media




]]> Buzzsprout-12856014 Tue, 16 May 2023 04:00:00 -0400 4047 6 2 full false Season Six Trailer: A season of flourishing Season Six Trailer: A season of flourishing After a generative break from new episodes, Origins Podcast is back with Season Six!

2023 has been a year of rapid change even as we carry the rupture of the last three years. It is precisely into this evolving landscape, that we are excited to announce that Origins Podcast returns with its Sixth Season! While it will continue to be a forum to explore the pivotal moments for a diverse array of voices where the universal peeks out from the particular, we are also adapting the show to our changing world, a living experiment and conversation, embracing new ways of being.  

Over the past few weeks we have taken a short pause from new episodes. While focusing on new work and new community at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a young daughter at home, this has not been idle time, but it has been a change of pace and with different breath so, too, has come rejuvenation and unexpected generativity. Both have influenced the show.

Origins is a space for all of us to ground toward flourishing. Running underneath every episode is curiosity and figuring about what a guest shares says about our flourishing, as individuals and as a society. 

Anthropologist James Suzman says that flourishing is using our wealth well to enrich ourselves spiritually, enrich ourselves mentally, and doing social good. Political philosopher, Danielle Allen, says it is to be empowered not only in your personal lives but also in your co-participation and co-ownership of our public spaces and public lives. 

Flourishing is an unfolding, a process, not a thing and certainly not static. 

In this era of twin crises of inattention and disconnection, Join us as we explore the question of flourishing, figuring out what it is, what it looks and feels like in our lives, an orientation that requires compassion. We will dive deep into both, scientifically and spiritually. 

Through it all, we'll be asking more spacious, generative questions, creating different narratives of our time and pulling us beyond ourselves and our categories; questions we can all bring into our lives and that might reweave our civic communities.

Finally, a note about some of the themes we will be exploring: 

  • The art of inquiry and curiosity
  • Artificial Intelligence and society
  • What we are talking about when we talk about collective intelligence and our knowledge commons
  • Anthropology and ethnography, these sciences of cultural excavation
  • Healthy relationality
  • The civics and philosophy of science
  • And in all things, the connection to flourishing, of science, of society, of life and joy. 


Please join in this living conversation. 

We have created a free Substack newsletter,The Flourishing Commons, to enrich these episodes. 

All of this is punctuated by new music and a new logo by friends of the show and kindred minds, Agasthya Pradhan Shenoy and Cristina Gonzalez. 

Follow us on Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 

]]> After a generative break from new episodes, Origins Podcast is back with Season Six!

2023 has been a year of rapid change even as we carry the rupture of the last three years. It is precisely into this evolving landscape, that we are excited to announce that Origins Podcast returns with its Sixth Season! While it will continue to be a forum to explore the pivotal moments for a diverse array of voices where the universal peeks out from the particular, we are also adapting the show to our changing world, a living experiment and conversation, embracing new ways of being.  

Over the past few weeks we have taken a short pause from new episodes. While focusing on new work and new community at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a young daughter at home, this has not been idle time, but it has been a change of pace and with different breath so, too, has come rejuvenation and unexpected generativity. Both have influenced the show.

Origins is a space for all of us to ground toward flourishing. Running underneath every episode is curiosity and figuring about what a guest shares says about our flourishing, as individuals and as a society. 

Anthropologist James Suzman says that flourishing is using our wealth well to enrich ourselves spiritually, enrich ourselves mentally, and doing social good. Political philosopher, Danielle Allen, says it is to be empowered not only in your personal lives but also in your co-participation and co-ownership of our public spaces and public lives. 

Flourishing is an unfolding, a process, not a thing and certainly not static. 

In this era of twin crises of inattention and disconnection, Join us as we explore the question of flourishing, figuring out what it is, what it looks and feels like in our lives, an orientation that requires compassion. We will dive deep into both, scientifically and spiritually. 

Through it all, we'll be asking more spacious, generative questions, creating different narratives of our time and pulling us beyond ourselves and our categories; questions we can all bring into our lives and that might reweave our civic communities.

Finally, a note about some of the themes we will be exploring: 

  • The art of inquiry and curiosity
  • Artificial Intelligence and society
  • What we are talking about when we talk about collective intelligence and our knowledge commons
  • Anthropology and ethnography, these sciences of cultural excavation
  • Healthy relationality
  • The civics and philosophy of science
  • And in all things, the connection to flourishing, of science, of society, of life and joy. 


Please join in this living conversation. 

We have created a free Substack newsletter,The Flourishing Commons, to enrich these episodes. 

All of this is punctuated by new music and a new logo by friends of the show and kindred minds, Agasthya Pradhan Shenoy and Cristina Gonzalez. 

Follow us on Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-12794476 Sat, 06 May 2023 04:00:00 -0400 313 6 1 full false Frank White - The Overview Effect and a planetary civilization Frank White - The Overview Effect and a planetary civilization Frank White is a philosopher of space. In 1987 he coined the term "the overview effect," referring to the life-altering experience astronauts received upon witnessing our planet from outer space. His work, as his life, bring this transformation of perspective into sharper focus, presenting an alternative perception of ourselves, our world, and our future.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

]]> Frank White is a philosopher of space. In 1987 he coined the term "the overview effect," referring to the life-altering experience astronauts received upon witnessing our planet from outer space. His work, as his life, bring this transformation of perspective into sharper focus, presenting an alternative perception of ourselves, our world, and our future.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-12434729 Tue, 14 Mar 2023 04:00:00 -0400 3688 full false Nicole Stott - Ambassador to the cosmos and to our humanity Nicole Stott - Ambassador to the cosmos and to our humanity Nicole Stott has a towering range of knowledge and experience, from the heights of outer space as a NASA astronaut to the depths of the ocean as an aquanaut, from the rigor and structure of science to the openness and imagination of art. She continually defies category, and her life embodies the creativity and interconnection that we are called to in the face of planetary challenges.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

]]> Nicole Stott has a towering range of knowledge and experience, from the heights of outer space as a NASA astronaut to the depths of the ocean as an aquanaut, from the rigor and structure of science to the openness and imagination of art. She continually defies category, and her life embodies the creativity and interconnection that we are called to in the face of planetary challenges.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-11962544 Tue, 03 Jan 2023 04:00:00 -0500 3680 5 8 full false David Sloan Wilson - Archipelagos of knowledge, commons, and the science of cooperation David Sloan Wilson - Archipelagos of knowledge, commons, and the science of cooperation David Sloan Wilson is one of biology’s most prolific and impactful scientists. He is author of paradigmatic contributions to evolutionary theory and how organisms behave, such as multilevel selection and core design principles for the efficacy of groups. But the reach of his work is far beyond the domains of biology and sociology, in whole a toolkit for improving how we live together and weaving between areas of thought.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:



]]> David Sloan Wilson is one of biology’s most prolific and impactful scientists. He is author of paradigmatic contributions to evolutionary theory and how organisms behave, such as multilevel selection and core design principles for the efficacy of groups. But the reach of his work is far beyond the domains of biology and sociology, in whole a toolkit for improving how we live together and weaving between areas of thought.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:



]]> Buzzsprout-11727075 Tue, 06 Dec 2022 04:00:00 -0500 3997 5 7 full false Ed Finn - Thoughtful optimism, intellectual voyaging, and a Center for Science and the Imagination Ed Finn - Thoughtful optimism, intellectual voyaging, and a Center for Science and the Imagination Ed Finn might be best described as an imaginer. The rest of the many things that he is and does kind of fall into place with that foundation. He started and for the past decade has been Director of the unexampled Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:




]]> Ed Finn might be best described as an imaginer. The rest of the many things that he is and does kind of fall into place with that foundation. He started and for the past decade has been Director of the unexampled Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:




]]> Buzzsprout-11549392 Tue, 01 Nov 2022 04:00:00 -0400 4662 5 6 full false Alex McDowell - A master class in worldbuilding and designing holistic spaces Alex McDowell - A master class in worldbuilding and designing holistic spaces Alex McDowell is a worldbuilder. He builds future realities to envision worlds that don't yet exist. By working across disciplines to imagine the future, his worlds inform and inspire stories and open eyes to new possibilities.

Origins Podcast website

Show Notes: 



]]> Alex McDowell is a worldbuilder. He builds future realities to envision worlds that don't yet exist. By working across disciplines to imagine the future, his worlds inform and inspire stories and open eyes to new possibilities.

Origins Podcast website

Show Notes: 



]]> Buzzsprout-11419149 Tue, 04 Oct 2022 04:00:00 -0400 3855 5 5 full false David Hassler - Leaping thought, authoring a life, and a spirit of passionate inquiry David Hassler - Leaping thought, authoring a life, and a spirit of passionate inquiry Poetry comes up so often in my conversations these days. Our society in crisis seems to be desperate for it, without being able to name that desperation until a poem calls it out of us. For years, award-winning Poet David Hassler has been defining and redefining how poetry enters and moves people and communities. 

Show Notes:

]]> Poetry comes up so often in my conversations these days. Our society in crisis seems to be desperate for it, without being able to name that desperation until a poem calls it out of us. For years, award-winning Poet David Hassler has been defining and redefining how poetry enters and moves people and communities. 

Show Notes:

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-11252504 Tue, 06 Sep 2022 04:00:00 -0400 3767 5 4 full false Alicia Juarrero - the philosopher who will change how you think about complexity Alicia Juarrero - the philosopher who will change how you think about complexity Alicia Juarrero is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Prince George’s Community College and the author of Dynamics in Action, a text that many consider to have laid the foundation for how we think about complexity in our society. So Alicia is a philosopher for this moment in human history.

Show Notes:

]]> Alicia Juarrero is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Prince George’s Community College and the author of Dynamics in Action, a text that many consider to have laid the foundation for how we think about complexity in our society. So Alicia is a philosopher for this moment in human history.

Show Notes:

]]> Buzzsprout-11092286 Tue, 09 Aug 2022 04:00:00 -0400 4117 5 3 full false Brandon Ballengée - Biodiversity, muscular hope, and the persistence of life Brandon Ballengée - Biodiversity, muscular hope, and the persistence of life Brandon Ballengée has a unique quality of attention, one that is not constrained by traditional distinctions between art & science and working & living. He wants to share that capacity to witness to liberate everyone's imagination of what this world can be, a world we are of rather than just in. This ecological consciousness informs his work as a visual artist, biologist and environmental educator.

Show Notes:

]]> Brandon Ballengée has a unique quality of attention, one that is not constrained by traditional distinctions between art & science and working & living. He wants to share that capacity to witness to liberate everyone's imagination of what this world can be, a world we are of rather than just in. This ecological consciousness informs his work as a visual artist, biologist and environmental educator.

Show Notes:

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-10932828 Tue, 12 Jul 2022 04:00:00 -0400 3617 5 2 full false Origins Season Five Trailer Origins Season Five Trailer Welcome back to Origins, listeners. After a few month hiatus, we're back with an exhilarating, generative, spacious season of the show--the hiatus was in part so that I could focus on research, to launch a new series of 'salons' with the Cultural Program for the National Academy of Science (see here for an example), help ignite a new initiative toward Open Science with NASA, and to do more writing, which you can read a bit about in a new Substack newsletter (The Flourishing Commons) that is an accompaniment to these various activities. The goal of that newsletter is to think about and realize healthier relationality and welcome you to join that conversation. 

All of these activities have influenced what the next season of Origins will be. These conversations will continue to be what they always have been -- explorations of the spaces between art, science, engineering, and design with the people who live in and shape them. They will continue to reveal these individual's network of thoughts, influences, and impacts, and will continue to draw out the relevance to each of you.

But Season Five will center threshold topics we face as a society now: 

  • How do we facilitate broader collaboration and wider collective intelligence? 
  • How can we ask more generative questions and learn the skill of asking better questions? 
  • What is the role of context and contextualization in our systems? 
  • Where do we need art and science in the future of our democracy and governance? 
  • How do we create a slower discourse and cultivate a quality of attention? How do we improve our information diets? 

Amidst all of these, Season five will be about ideas and practices of muscular hope and worldbuilding. It will be about 

  • The philosophies of living that come from them and the way that these things are a kind of bridge to all domains of inquiry and living; universalizing ideas; ideas around which we might find consilience.
  • We will be exploring the myriad places we find muscular hope and worldbuilding in our cosmos and in our history and in our imagination and the nuanced ways that they are expressed there. We will be learning that there is no one source of these things, that they exist across ways of knowing, not ways that we hold explicitly in our minds and those we have yet to give language and image to

Wittgenstein wrote that "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." Let's build a new vocabulary to talk about the problems confronting us; a more muscular and spacious vocabulary  -- one generative of a new world more capable of flourishing. 

We're delighted to bring you guests that embody these ideas. No matter where you come from, what you do in this world, you will find these conversations full of curiosity and insight. 

My work is to draw out how people survive, flourish, grow, keep loving and laughing so that you can bring the ideas into your own life. That is my commitment to you with the dozen or so episodes that follow. 

]]> Welcome back to Origins, listeners. After a few month hiatus, we're back with an exhilarating, generative, spacious season of the show--the hiatus was in part so that I could focus on research, to launch a new series of 'salons' with the Cultural Program for the National Academy of Science (see here for an example), help ignite a new initiative toward Open Science with NASA, and to do more writing, which you can read a bit about in a new Substack newsletter (The Flourishing Commons) that is an accompaniment to these various activities. The goal of that newsletter is to think about and realize healthier relationality and welcome you to join that conversation. 

All of these activities have influenced what the next season of Origins will be. These conversations will continue to be what they always have been -- explorations of the spaces between art, science, engineering, and design with the people who live in and shape them. They will continue to reveal these individual's network of thoughts, influences, and impacts, and will continue to draw out the relevance to each of you.

But Season Five will center threshold topics we face as a society now: 

  • How do we facilitate broader collaboration and wider collective intelligence? 
  • How can we ask more generative questions and learn the skill of asking better questions? 
  • What is the role of context and contextualization in our systems? 
  • Where do we need art and science in the future of our democracy and governance? 
  • How do we create a slower discourse and cultivate a quality of attention? How do we improve our information diets? 

Amidst all of these, Season five will be about ideas and practices of muscular hope and worldbuilding. It will be about 

  • The philosophies of living that come from them and the way that these things are a kind of bridge to all domains of inquiry and living; universalizing ideas; ideas around which we might find consilience.
  • We will be exploring the myriad places we find muscular hope and worldbuilding in our cosmos and in our history and in our imagination and the nuanced ways that they are expressed there. We will be learning that there is no one source of these things, that they exist across ways of knowing, not ways that we hold explicitly in our minds and those we have yet to give language and image to

Wittgenstein wrote that "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." Let's build a new vocabulary to talk about the problems confronting us; a more muscular and spacious vocabulary  -- one generative of a new world more capable of flourishing. 

We're delighted to bring you guests that embody these ideas. No matter where you come from, what you do in this world, you will find these conversations full of curiosity and insight. 

My work is to draw out how people survive, flourish, grow, keep loving and laughing so that you can bring the ideas into your own life. That is my commitment to you with the dozen or so episodes that follow. 

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-10887151 Fri, 01 Jul 2022 04:00:00 -0400 270 5 1 full false Sara Hendren - Healthy relationality, how we meet the built world, and the curriculum of the future Sara Hendren - Healthy relationality, how we meet the built world, and the curriculum of the future Subscribe to The Flourishing Commons - a newsletter to accompany Origins episodes and to build a community around a rich forum for exchange.

Sara Hendren is a humanist in tech. This may seem like a strange statement, but it may be a perfect place to pick up Sara's trajectory. She is a brilliant designer, an affecting educator, and just might be the source of language that will transform the way you witness the world.

Show Notes:

]]> Subscribe to The Flourishing Commons - a newsletter to accompany Origins episodes and to build a community around a rich forum for exchange.

Sara Hendren is a humanist in tech. This may seem like a strange statement, but it may be a perfect place to pick up Sara's trajectory. She is a brilliant designer, an affecting educator, and just might be the source of language that will transform the way you witness the world.

Show Notes:

]]> Buzzsprout-10243104 Tue, 22 Mar 2022 04:00:00 -0400 3921 4 11 full false Michael Hochberg - mystery and our pivotal moments, innovation, and science from cells to societies Michael Hochberg - mystery and our pivotal moments, innovation, and science from cells to societies Michael Hochberg is Distinguished Research Director with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (the French National Centre for Scientific Research) and based at the University of Montpellier, France. His research has for many years spanned fields from ecology to epidemiology to biodiversity to innovation to the communication of science and touches every scale imaginable, from cells to societies.

Show Notes:

]]> Michael Hochberg is Distinguished Research Director with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (the French National Centre for Scientific Research) and based at the University of Montpellier, France. His research has for many years spanned fields from ecology to epidemiology to biodiversity to innovation to the communication of science and touches every scale imaginable, from cells to societies.

Show Notes:

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-10063628 Tue, 15 Feb 2022 04:00:00 -0500 4168 4 10 full false Dave Snowden - Sensemaking, complexity, and frameworks for living Dave Snowden - Sensemaking, complexity, and frameworks for living For years Dave Snowden has helped me understand how to navigate a complex world better than perhaps any other thinker. He draws so widely from all schools of thought in forming frameworks for sensemaking.

This episode is expanding. It will be with me for a long time and I hope it stays with you, too. 

Read more at: https://www.originspodcast.co/episodes-1

Show Notes:




]]> For years Dave Snowden has helped me understand how to navigate a complex world better than perhaps any other thinker. He draws so widely from all schools of thought in forming frameworks for sensemaking.

This episode is expanding. It will be with me for a long time and I hope it stays with you, too. 

Read more at: https://www.originspodcast.co/episodes-1

Show Notes:




]]> Buzzsprout-9819504 Tue, 04 Jan 2022 04:00:00 -0500 3690 4 9 full false Katy Börner - Networks, noticing what we don't expect, and an atlas for navigating our world Katy Börner - Networks, noticing what we don't expect, and an atlas for navigating our world Katy Börner is one of the great mappers of our age. Her maps tell the history of science, trace how communication has evolved from the stone age to modern day, and reveal the connections across our society. In her work, all of these things become visual and interactive. That is to say she is the perfect person to talk to in this age when complexity lurks behind the most intractable issues facing our society and demands new ways of witnessing them.

Show Notes:

]]> Katy Börner is one of the great mappers of our age. Her maps tell the history of science, trace how communication has evolved from the stone age to modern day, and reveal the connections across our society. In her work, all of these things become visual and interactive. That is to say she is the perfect person to talk to in this age when complexity lurks behind the most intractable issues facing our society and demands new ways of witnessing them.

Show Notes:

]]> Buzzsprout-9663745 Tue, 07 Dec 2021 04:00:00 -0500 3384 4 8 full false (Best Of) Cecilia Conrad - Steward of the MacArthur Genius Grants, 100 million dollars, and transcendent empowerment (Best Of) Cecilia Conrad - Steward of the MacArthur Genius Grants, 100 million dollars, and transcendent empowerment This episode originally aired on June 4, 2020. 

There are new episodes coming to you soon, so stay tuned. 

But now is a good time to revisit wise words from one of my favorite previous guests, Cecilia Conrad, Managing Director of the MacArthur ('Genius') Fellows Program and the 100&Change program. 

The 2021 class of MacArthur Fellows was announced in late September 2021. In Cecilia Conrad's words, “As we emerge from the shadows of the past two years, this class of 25 Fellows helps us reimagine what’s possible. They demonstrate that creativity has no boundaries. It happens in all fields of endeavor, among the relatively young and more seasoned, in Iowa and Puerto Rico. Once again, we have the opportunity for exultation as we recognize the potential to create objects of beauty and awe, advance our understanding of society, and foment change to improve the human condition.”

There are themes that have emerged from this show that I didn't think when I launched it would become central to what we explore in these conversations. One of those themes is the breadth of awe in this world and how we experience it individually and collectively, how it disarms each of us to our most elemental and constellates the world to its greatest height. 

The way that Cecilia empowers and imagines the world of awe that could be in her life as in her work was one of the powerful influences for this theme on Origins. 

Like a book read at different times, this conversation will take on new life for whatever the pivotal moment you are in right now, the ones realized and the ones we may only see in hindsight. 

If you enjoyed this conversation, check out these other episodes:


]]> This episode originally aired on June 4, 2020. 

There are new episodes coming to you soon, so stay tuned. 

But now is a good time to revisit wise words from one of my favorite previous guests, Cecilia Conrad, Managing Director of the MacArthur ('Genius') Fellows Program and the 100&Change program. 

The 2021 class of MacArthur Fellows was announced in late September 2021. In Cecilia Conrad's words, “As we emerge from the shadows of the past two years, this class of 25 Fellows helps us reimagine what’s possible. They demonstrate that creativity has no boundaries. It happens in all fields of endeavor, among the relatively young and more seasoned, in Iowa and Puerto Rico. Once again, we have the opportunity for exultation as we recognize the potential to create objects of beauty and awe, advance our understanding of society, and foment change to improve the human condition.”

There are themes that have emerged from this show that I didn't think when I launched it would become central to what we explore in these conversations. One of those themes is the breadth of awe in this world and how we experience it individually and collectively, how it disarms each of us to our most elemental and constellates the world to its greatest height. 

The way that Cecilia empowers and imagines the world of awe that could be in her life as in her work was one of the powerful influences for this theme on Origins. 

Like a book read at different times, this conversation will take on new life for whatever the pivotal moment you are in right now, the ones realized and the ones we may only see in hindsight. 

If you enjoyed this conversation, check out these other episodes:


]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-9535287 Tue, 16 Nov 2021 04:00:00 -0500 2198 4 7 full false Jessica Flack - Finding the right questions, the wisdom of complexity, and deep physical and cognitive fitness Jessica Flack - Finding the right questions, the wisdom of complexity, and deep physical and cognitive fitness Dr. and professor Jessica Flack has been a dream guest for Origins since the beginning - the kind of generous intellect and polymath whose words and work expand everyone around her. She also might be the person we can place our trust in to help us learn how to make sense of an increasingly complex world.

Show Notes:

]]> Dr. and professor Jessica Flack has been a dream guest for Origins since the beginning - the kind of generous intellect and polymath whose words and work expand everyone around her. She also might be the person we can place our trust in to help us learn how to make sense of an increasingly complex world.

Show Notes:

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-9379693 Tue, 19 Oct 2021 04:00:00 -0400 3535 4 6 full false JoAnn Kuchera-Morin - The AlloSphere, a deeper integration of art and science, and the new senses we need now JoAnn Kuchera-Morin - The AlloSphere, a deeper integration of art and science, and the new senses we need now JoAnn Kuchera-Morin is a composer. But the music she writes is more than mere notes; it embraces art and science and engineering and finds new frontiers at the intersection of them all. Her 'music' is both song and her research into new modes of immersive, interactive scientific and artistic investigation. Through art as with science, her work seeks to create as she says, "an exponential rise in consciousness."

Show Notes:

]]> JoAnn Kuchera-Morin is a composer. But the music she writes is more than mere notes; it embraces art and science and engineering and finds new frontiers at the intersection of them all. Her 'music' is both song and her research into new modes of immersive, interactive scientific and artistic investigation. Through art as with science, her work seeks to create as she says, "an exponential rise in consciousness."

Show Notes:

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-9298661 Tue, 05 Oct 2021 04:00:00 -0400 3426 4 5 full false Paco Nathan - Thinking in "graphs", a data and tech pioneer on living in a complex world Paco Nathan - Thinking in "graphs", a data and tech pioneer on living in a complex world I have trouble wrapping any adequate labels around this episode’s guest, Paco Nathan. Paco is a technologist, data scientist and an evangelist of a brighter data and technology future. He has an uncommon ability to synthesize the gaps and trends in this complex and evolving space, and gives me hope that we can create a more flourishing future within it.

Show Notes:

]]> I have trouble wrapping any adequate labels around this episode’s guest, Paco Nathan. Paco is a technologist, data scientist and an evangelist of a brighter data and technology future. He has an uncommon ability to synthesize the gaps and trends in this complex and evolving space, and gives me hope that we can create a more flourishing future within it.

Show Notes:

]]> Buzzsprout-9190743 Tue, 14 Sep 2021 04:00:00 -0400 4237 4 4 full false Caitlin McShea - Meeting places of art and science, interplanetary thinking, and an imaginative life Caitlin McShea - Meeting places of art and science, interplanetary thinking, and an imaginative life Caitlin McShea is that special kind of curious that you cannot help but be inspired by, and she has the intellect to spread that curiosity over any domain. For the past ten years in roles varying from director of art galleries, curator and coordinator of exhibits, and now as a program manager at the Santa Fe Institute, she has been giving language, image, and concreteness to some of the most imaginative and futuristic thoughts of our age.

Show Notes:

]]> Caitlin McShea is that special kind of curious that you cannot help but be inspired by, and she has the intellect to spread that curiosity over any domain. For the past ten years in roles varying from director of art galleries, curator and coordinator of exhibits, and now as a program manager at the Santa Fe Institute, she has been giving language, image, and concreteness to some of the most imaginative and futuristic thoughts of our age.

Show Notes:

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-9101799 Tue, 31 Aug 2021 04:00:00 -0400 3842 4 3 full false Anima Anandkumar - Artificial Intelligence and a flourishing society Anima Anandkumar - Artificial Intelligence and a flourishing society Professor Anima Anandkumar is a meteor in the field of artificial intelligence or AI. Her rise in the space has been a phenomenon to behold and her voice is a refreshing and inviting one that might just alter the trajectory of AI and society.

Show Notes:

]]> Professor Anima Anandkumar is a meteor in the field of artificial intelligence or AI. Her rise in the space has been a phenomenon to behold and her voice is a refreshing and inviting one that might just alter the trajectory of AI and society.

Show Notes:

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-9040194 Tue, 17 Aug 2021 04:00:00 -0400 3644 4 2 full false Dan Goods - design at NASA, life's throughlines of wonder, and the museum of awe Dan Goods - design at NASA, life's throughlines of wonder, and the museum of awe Dan Goods is a leader among the community of creatives at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, so he's an imaginer among imaginers. A creator among creators. He's one of the most innovative minds I've come across, and someone who embodies selflessness and that most wonderful and contagious quality that is an insatiable curiosity. 

Show Notes:

]]> Dan Goods is a leader among the community of creatives at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, so he's an imaginer among imaginers. A creator among creators. He's one of the most innovative minds I've come across, and someone who embodies selflessness and that most wonderful and contagious quality that is an insatiable curiosity. 

Show Notes:

]]> Buzzsprout-8952853 Tue, 03 Aug 2021 04:00:00 -0400 4189 4 1 full false Origins Season Four Trailer Origins Season Four Trailer During two years spent at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, curiosity-driven coffee conversations every morning with people who surprised and inspired me sparked an endless fascination with the pivotal moments across a life. Travels to leading art, science, engineering, and design institutions around the world nourished my passion and blossomed into the conversations you hear on Origins every other week. 

On Origins we bring you conversations with thought-leaders across an eclectic mix of disciplines (science, engineering, art, and design), crafted specifically for the category-defying society that we live in. Join us as we explore the people expanding our world along with their network of thoughts, influences, and impacts, and what meaning they hold for you. 

Over the past 18 months we have published 33 mind-expanding, path-altering conversations. The craft of the show has evolved over that time (just go back and listen to the first few episodes to see just how far it has come) and we welcome these changes as the only way to respond to our uncertain society. Today we release Season Four as the next step in that evolution. 

We have used the personal 'trajectory' as a way of organizing things. Trajectories are not always best experienced in a sequential way and I believe there are better dimensions for organizing them. That is the structure of this podcast - the complex exploration of these trajectories to meet the complex lives of our guests and so that you can relate them to your own. On this season we will lean in to that complexity at a time when the world demands this kind of rethinking of each of us. 

Over the next dozen or so episodes we will explore topics central to our society today, including: the philosophy of design and what it means for science and society, the deeper view of artificial intelligence, becoming a planetary civilization and the science and engineering we need, thinking collectively rather than individually and the groups and institutions that are showing us how, the global commons, what it means to flourish as individuals and as groups, and much much more. 

The thought-leaders you will hear from over the next dozen or so episodes come from around the globe and are those that are creating the waves that will shape our society of the future. I cannot overstate how excited I am for you to hear each one.  

The speakers we bring to the show are much more than the conversation we can possibly have in an hour. They are worlds and they bring us into contact with many other worlds. We use the show notes to be a kind of network of those worlds, helping you take the ideas into your own life and explore the web of information. 

If you enjoy the show, it goes a long way to helping others discover it and experience whatever joy or expansion you have by rating us on Apple Podcasts and leaving a review. 

You can find and share Origins wherever you get your podcasts (Apple, Google, Spotify, etc.) and we are appreciative of any posts on Instagram or Twitter to thoughts an episode sparked in you. Help us create a community around these brilliant conversations.

Finally, we are always drawing inspiration from new people and looking to bring those voices to Origins. Please share who is inspiring you and that you might like to hear on the show. Drop us an email from our website OriginsPodcast.co or send me a note on Twitter (@AeroSciengineer). 

]]> During two years spent at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, curiosity-driven coffee conversations every morning with people who surprised and inspired me sparked an endless fascination with the pivotal moments across a life. Travels to leading art, science, engineering, and design institutions around the world nourished my passion and blossomed into the conversations you hear on Origins every other week. 

On Origins we bring you conversations with thought-leaders across an eclectic mix of disciplines (science, engineering, art, and design), crafted specifically for the category-defying society that we live in. Join us as we explore the people expanding our world along with their network of thoughts, influences, and impacts, and what meaning they hold for you. 

Over the past 18 months we have published 33 mind-expanding, path-altering conversations. The craft of the show has evolved over that time (just go back and listen to the first few episodes to see just how far it has come) and we welcome these changes as the only way to respond to our uncertain society. Today we release Season Four as the next step in that evolution. 

We have used the personal 'trajectory' as a way of organizing things. Trajectories are not always best experienced in a sequential way and I believe there are better dimensions for organizing them. That is the structure of this podcast - the complex exploration of these trajectories to meet the complex lives of our guests and so that you can relate them to your own. On this season we will lean in to that complexity at a time when the world demands this kind of rethinking of each of us. 

Over the next dozen or so episodes we will explore topics central to our society today, including: the philosophy of design and what it means for science and society, the deeper view of artificial intelligence, becoming a planetary civilization and the science and engineering we need, thinking collectively rather than individually and the groups and institutions that are showing us how, the global commons, what it means to flourish as individuals and as groups, and much much more. 

The thought-leaders you will hear from over the next dozen or so episodes come from around the globe and are those that are creating the waves that will shape our society of the future. I cannot overstate how excited I am for you to hear each one.  

The speakers we bring to the show are much more than the conversation we can possibly have in an hour. They are worlds and they bring us into contact with many other worlds. We use the show notes to be a kind of network of those worlds, helping you take the ideas into your own life and explore the web of information. 

If you enjoy the show, it goes a long way to helping others discover it and experience whatever joy or expansion you have by rating us on Apple Podcasts and leaving a review. 

You can find and share Origins wherever you get your podcasts (Apple, Google, Spotify, etc.) and we are appreciative of any posts on Instagram or Twitter to thoughts an episode sparked in you. Help us create a community around these brilliant conversations.

Finally, we are always drawing inspiration from new people and looking to bring those voices to Origins. Please share who is inspiring you and that you might like to hear on the show. Drop us an email from our website OriginsPodcast.co or send me a note on Twitter (@AeroSciengineer). 

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-8919907 Mon, 26 Jul 2021 04:00:00 -0400 251 4 0 full false Peter Turchi - Maps of the creative process and designs for life Peter Turchi - Maps of the creative process and designs for life Peter Turchi takes the art and act of writing as an irresistible analog for the art and the act of living. His work is part of a long tradition of fascination with processes of writers and he is among the masters at relating that process in a way that reaches all domains of society. For anyone who has ever thought about writing - the craft of it, its centrality in the human experience, its analog for life itself - this conversation is for you.

Show Notes:

]]> Peter Turchi takes the art and act of writing as an irresistible analog for the art and the act of living. His work is part of a long tradition of fascination with processes of writers and he is among the masters at relating that process in a way that reaches all domains of society. For anyone who has ever thought about writing - the craft of it, its centrality in the human experience, its analog for life itself - this conversation is for you.

Show Notes:

]]> Buzzsprout-8439778 Tue, 04 May 2021 04:00:00 -0400 3746 3 9 full false Ethan Zuckerman - A master-course in how to connect and a syllabus for a spacious life Ethan Zuckerman - A master-course in how to connect and a syllabus for a spacious life Ethan Zuckerman is a voice that you need to know. He’s a pioneer for the use of media as a tool for social change, for cultivating international development with technology, and for the activation of new media technologies by activists. Ethan is uncommonly insightful about the currents and trends of our society. In this conversation he helps us understand the shape of our public discourse, and relates it to the world of today and tomorrow.

Show Notes:

]]> Ethan Zuckerman is a voice that you need to know. He’s a pioneer for the use of media as a tool for social change, for cultivating international development with technology, and for the activation of new media technologies by activists. Ethan is uncommonly insightful about the currents and trends of our society. In this conversation he helps us understand the shape of our public discourse, and relates it to the world of today and tomorrow.

Show Notes:

]]> Buzzsprout-8352691 Tue, 20 Apr 2021 04:00:00 -0400 3499 3 8 full false Richard D. Bartlett: Meaningful work, social fabric, and flourishing Richard D. Bartlett: Meaningful work, social fabric, and flourishing We find ourselves in a world that feels incongruent and unfamiliar, changing socially and technologically at paces that expose conventional explanations as inadequate. Climate change, pandemics, political unrest have punctuated this new century and feel like clarion calls for new ways of being and being together. Enter Richard D. Bartlett — someone who has been a pioneer in thinking about these new modes.

Show Notes:

]]> We find ourselves in a world that feels incongruent and unfamiliar, changing socially and technologically at paces that expose conventional explanations as inadequate. Climate change, pandemics, political unrest have punctuated this new century and feel like clarion calls for new ways of being and being together. Enter Richard D. Bartlett — someone who has been a pioneer in thinking about these new modes.

Show Notes:

]]> Buzzsprout-8266484 Tue, 06 Apr 2021 04:00:00 -0400 3659 3 7 full false Tomas Björkman - Nature, the Nordic Secret, and what is emerging Tomas Björkman - Nature, the Nordic Secret, and what is emerging Tomas Björkman transcends science, business, philosophy, and social and personal change. Founder of the Ekskäret Foundation and coauthor of The Nordic Secret, Tomas’ story is a guide for anyone thinking about the future of society - a confluence of physics, macroeconomics, and entrepreneurship.

Show Notes: 



Full Show Notes here

]]> Tomas Björkman transcends science, business, philosophy, and social and personal change. Founder of the Ekskäret Foundation and coauthor of The Nordic Secret, Tomas’ story is a guide for anyone thinking about the future of society - a confluence of physics, macroeconomics, and entrepreneurship.

Show Notes: 



Full Show Notes here

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-8041025 Tue, 02 Mar 2021 04:00:00 -0500 4415 3 6 full false Sarah Goodwin - How we need to communicate science in our changing world Sarah Goodwin - How we need to communicate science in our changing world Show Notes: 

]]> Show Notes: 

]]> Buzzsprout-7714291 Tue, 09 Feb 2021 04:00:00 -0500 3536 3 5 full false Episode 28: Nora Bateson - Interconnectedness, warm data, and the vitality of things Episode 28: Nora Bateson - Interconnectedness, warm data, and the vitality of things Show Notes: 

  • Small Arcs of Larger Circles (02:00) 
  • Objectivity (05:45) 
  • Relationships and interdependencies (07:00) 
  • Smiling with your whole system (10:00) 
  • Flip side of delight and seeing connections (11:00) 
  • Language developed from your own frustration (13:30)

    • Different kinds of teachers 
  • Esalen Institute (15:30) 
  • Diving more deeply into the arts and an exploration of culture (19:20) 
  • Working with different groupings of people (19:40) 
  • Describing things nonlinearly (20:30) 
  • 'Warm data' (23:50) 
  • Mutual learning between generations (27:00) 
  • ‘Change is when you throw away the ladder’ (28:00) 
  • Willingness to play and be wrong - inadequacy (30:00) 
  • New way of thinking and learning - Warm Data Labs (34:30) 
    • Observe the observer 
    • Multiple description 
    • Fluid patterning 
    • Paradox, inconsistency, time 
    • Holism, reductionism
    • Cultural 
    • Tone, texture, aesthetic

  • Bertrand Russell logical typing
  • 'Transcontextual aboutness' (47:00) 
  • Symmathesy (52:30)
  • Morning routine (55:00)
  • Elvis Costello - embodying visions for things (58:00)
  • Julie Odell How to Do Nothing (01:00:00)
  • Andrea Gibson poem Tincture (01:01:50)
  • Lightning Round (01:04:00)
    • Book: Alice in Wonderland
    • Passion: The willingness of art and not knowing where it is going
    • Heart sing: New dog, Blake
    • Screwed up: Doing things just in time
  • The reason to give is not because of what you will get for it
    • Tend vitality
  • Find guest online: 
  • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series   
]]> Show Notes: 

  • Small Arcs of Larger Circles (02:00) 
  • Objectivity (05:45) 
  • Relationships and interdependencies (07:00) 
  • Smiling with your whole system (10:00) 
  • Flip side of delight and seeing connections (11:00) 
  • Language developed from your own frustration (13:30)

    • Different kinds of teachers 
  • Esalen Institute (15:30) 
  • Diving more deeply into the arts and an exploration of culture (19:20) 
  • Working with different groupings of people (19:40) 
  • Describing things nonlinearly (20:30) 
  • 'Warm data' (23:50) 
  • Mutual learning between generations (27:00) 
  • ‘Change is when you throw away the ladder’ (28:00) 
  • Willingness to play and be wrong - inadequacy (30:00) 
  • New way of thinking and learning - Warm Data Labs (34:30) 
    • Observe the observer 
    • Multiple description 
    • Fluid patterning 
    • Paradox, inconsistency, time 
    • Holism, reductionism
    • Cultural 
    • Tone, texture, aesthetic

  • Bertrand Russell logical typing
  • 'Transcontextual aboutness' (47:00) 
  • Symmathesy (52:30)
  • Morning routine (55:00)
  • Elvis Costello - embodying visions for things (58:00)
  • Julie Odell How to Do Nothing (01:00:00)
  • Andrea Gibson poem Tincture (01:01:50)
  • Lightning Round (01:04:00)
    • Book: Alice in Wonderland
    • Passion: The willingness of art and not knowing where it is going
    • Heart sing: New dog, Blake
    • Screwed up: Doing things just in time
  • The reason to give is not because of what you will get for it
    • Tend vitality
  • Find guest online: 
  • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series   
]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-7073851 Tue, 05 Jan 2021 04:00:00 -0500 4380 3 4 full false Episode 27: Ed Kearns - Exploring the ocean, generosity, and a culture of data Episode 27: Ed Kearns - Exploring the ocean, generosity, and a culture of data Show Notes: 

  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (02:00) 
  • Rachel Carson’s words (03:30) 
  • Scale of things and perspective 
  • Pioneers of oceanography: Rossby and Montgomery (07:30) 
  • Global conclusions from small data (09:30) 
  • World Ocean Circulation Experiment (10:00) 
  • Eye-opening expeditions (12:00) 
  • All kinds of ways of ’seeing’ (14:00) 
  • Evolution of distributing data (15:00) 
  • Recording our experiences (17:00) 
  • Books (19:45) 
  • Mentors and lessons:  
    • “Had to make mistakes myself to realize what they [were] trying to tell me all along”  
  • Thomas Rossby (25:00) 
  • Generosity of time and ideas 
  • Understanding of how people need to work together (28:00) 
  • Working across boundaries 
  • Curiosity-driven networks (29:50) 
  • NOAA Big Data Project (31:30) 
  • Establishing trust in group projects (34:45 and 37:45) 
  • The challenges of 2020 (37:50) 
  • Open Commons Consortium and Cancer Moonshot (49:20) 
  • The why and how of career shifts (52:00) 
  • First Street Foundation (54:00) 
    • Changing people’s minds about climate change 
    • More meaningful activities that just providing data 
    • https://floodfactor.com/
    • Making effective data tools 
  • Not about prediction, but response (01:02:00) 
  • Humanity’s biggest advantage (01:07:00) 
  • Quantifying the risk due to and making decisions about climate change (01:12:00) 
  • Jenny Odell - art is being the orchestrator of attention (01:13:30) 
  • What makes us human (01:14:00) 
  • Lightning round (01:15:00) 
    • Book: The Information (James Gleick) 
    • Passion: family and outdoors together 
    • Heart sing: fire risk 
    • Screwed up: learning to say when he didn’t know something 
  • Find guest online: 
    • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/edwardkearns 
    • Twitter: @edward_j_kearns 
  • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series   
]]> Show Notes: 

  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (02:00) 
  • Rachel Carson’s words (03:30) 
  • Scale of things and perspective 
  • Pioneers of oceanography: Rossby and Montgomery (07:30) 
  • Global conclusions from small data (09:30) 
  • World Ocean Circulation Experiment (10:00) 
  • Eye-opening expeditions (12:00) 
  • All kinds of ways of ’seeing’ (14:00) 
  • Evolution of distributing data (15:00) 
  • Recording our experiences (17:00) 
  • Books (19:45) 
  • Mentors and lessons:  
    • “Had to make mistakes myself to realize what they [were] trying to tell me all along”  
  • Thomas Rossby (25:00) 
  • Generosity of time and ideas 
  • Understanding of how people need to work together (28:00) 
  • Working across boundaries 
  • Curiosity-driven networks (29:50) 
  • NOAA Big Data Project (31:30) 
  • Establishing trust in group projects (34:45 and 37:45) 
  • The challenges of 2020 (37:50) 
  • Open Commons Consortium and Cancer Moonshot (49:20) 
  • The why and how of career shifts (52:00) 
  • First Street Foundation (54:00) 
    • Changing people’s minds about climate change 
    • More meaningful activities that just providing data 
    • https://floodfactor.com/
    • Making effective data tools 
  • Not about prediction, but response (01:02:00) 
  • Humanity’s biggest advantage (01:07:00) 
  • Quantifying the risk due to and making decisions about climate change (01:12:00) 
  • Jenny Odell - art is being the orchestrator of attention (01:13:30) 
  • What makes us human (01:14:00) 
  • Lightning round (01:15:00) 
    • Book: The Information (James Gleick) 
    • Passion: family and outdoors together 
    • Heart sing: fire risk 
    • Screwed up: learning to say when he didn’t know something 
  • Find guest online: 
    • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/edwardkearns 
    • Twitter: @edward_j_kearns 
  • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series   
]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-6710794 Tue, 08 Dec 2020 04:00:00 -0500 5087 3 3 full false Episode 26: Alfred Nash - Insatiable curiosity, NASA and Team X, and the return of the Renaissance Man Episode 26: Alfred Nash - Insatiable curiosity, NASA and Team X, and the return of the Renaissance Man Show Notes: 

]]> Show Notes: 

]]> Buzzsprout-6487696 Mon, 23 Nov 2020 04:00:00 -0500 4527 3 2 full false Episode 25: César Hidalgo - Information and complexity, learning and leading, rethinking technology in society Episode 25: César Hidalgo - Information and complexity, learning and leading, rethinking technology in society Show Notes: 


]]> Show Notes: 


]]> Buzzsprout-6043417 Thu, 29 Oct 2020 04:00:00 -0400 3276 3 1 full false Episode 24: Melanie Mitchell - The nature of intelligence and following your curiosity Episode 24: Melanie Mitchell - The nature of intelligence and following your curiosity Show Notes: 

]]> Show Notes: 

]]> Buzzsprout-5003927 Mon, 17 Aug 2020 04:00:00 -0400 4033 2 10 full false Episode 23: Giorgia Lupi - Harmonizing life and data through design Episode 23: Giorgia Lupi - Harmonizing life and data through design Show Notes: 

  • Data-driven design firm Accurat
  • Data humanism
  • When she realized design was going to be a part of her life (07:00) 
  • A ’new chapter’ in her life to fuse data and design (07:30) 
  • What teachers told her that changed her (08:00) 
  • Discovery of information design (09:00) 
  • Rules versus limitations (10:15) 
    • Rules as catalyzers of creativity 
    • Pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone 
  • Phases of dealing with COVID-19 (13:00) 
  • Think about yourself in 2-3 years - who do you want to remember yourself to be? (13:45) 
  • Daily practices (14:15) 
    • How to be in touch with what makes you feel better (15:30) 
    • Be patient with yourself 
  • What she does when she feels uncreative (16:30) 
  • Saying no to things (19:00) 
    • Setting rules for yourself 
    • Decide who it is that you are 
  • Maria Popova and Brain Pickings (23:15) 
  • Design vs. data science (25:00) 
  • Data as a way to analyze oneself (25:15) 
  • Design firm IDEO and user-centered design (28:30) 
  • Antidisciplinary (28:40) 
  • What to avoid when starting a new project (29:15) 
  • The tension between familiarity and the unknown (30:15) 
  • The energy you put out (32:20) 
  • The value of new creative environments (33:00) 
  • Pentagram (33:20) 
  • Not the next ’thing,’ the next ‘chapter’ (35:00) 
  • Using a language is a way to train the brain (37:00) 
  • MIT Media Lab (38:30) 
  • Friends in space piece (42:00) 
  • Lightning Round (44:00): 
    • Book: The image of the city Kevin Lynch 
    • Passion that set her path: playing the piano 
    • Latest passion: Romantic relationship 
    • Screwed up: Relationship with her father and time 
  • Find Giorgia online 
  • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series  
]]> Show Notes: 

  • Data-driven design firm Accurat
  • Data humanism
  • When she realized design was going to be a part of her life (07:00) 
  • A ’new chapter’ in her life to fuse data and design (07:30) 
  • What teachers told her that changed her (08:00) 
  • Discovery of information design (09:00) 
  • Rules versus limitations (10:15) 
    • Rules as catalyzers of creativity 
    • Pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone 
  • Phases of dealing with COVID-19 (13:00) 
  • Think about yourself in 2-3 years - who do you want to remember yourself to be? (13:45) 
  • Daily practices (14:15) 
    • How to be in touch with what makes you feel better (15:30) 
    • Be patient with yourself 
  • What she does when she feels uncreative (16:30) 
  • Saying no to things (19:00) 
    • Setting rules for yourself 
    • Decide who it is that you are 
  • Maria Popova and Brain Pickings (23:15) 
  • Design vs. data science (25:00) 
  • Data as a way to analyze oneself (25:15) 
  • Design firm IDEO and user-centered design (28:30) 
  • Antidisciplinary (28:40) 
  • What to avoid when starting a new project (29:15) 
  • The tension between familiarity and the unknown (30:15) 
  • The energy you put out (32:20) 
  • The value of new creative environments (33:00) 
  • Pentagram (33:20) 
  • Not the next ’thing,’ the next ‘chapter’ (35:00) 
  • Using a language is a way to train the brain (37:00) 
  • MIT Media Lab (38:30) 
  • Friends in space piece (42:00) 
  • Lightning Round (44:00): 
    • Book: The image of the city Kevin Lynch 
    • Passion that set her path: playing the piano 
    • Latest passion: Romantic relationship 
    • Screwed up: Relationship with her father and time 
  • Find Giorgia online 
  • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series  
]]> Buzzsprout-4787759 Fri, 31 Jul 2020 04:00:00 -0400 3033 2 9 full false Episode 22: Elizabeth Anderson - A new equality and the philosopher for this moment in American life Episode 22: Elizabeth Anderson - A new equality and the philosopher for this moment in American life Show Notes: 

]]> Show Notes: 

]]> Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-4591691 Fri, 17 Jul 2020 04:00:00 -0400 4858 2 8 full false Episode 21: Waleed Abdalati - NASA Chief Scientist and how to live a life led by your curiosity Episode 21: Waleed Abdalati - NASA Chief Scientist and how to live a life led by your curiosity
  • Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) (06:00) 
  • One of ten people to be ’NASA Chief Scientist' 
  • Being led around by your curiosity 
    • ‘Pulls' from our earliest ages in life (07:30) 
  • The Arctic from space (10:00) 
    • The ’space-based perspective' 
  • ’No better compass than your emotions’ (11:30) 
    • Constructive emotions 
  • Opportunities to connect mind and body (14:00) 
  • Love of career and love of family (23:30) 
  • “It has to give you energy and not drain energy from you" (25:00) 
  • What he tells his students (28:00) 
    • Think about the act of learning 
  • The goal: learn, grow, have new experiences (30:00) 
  • Becoming comfortable with discomfort - not that hard if you believe in it and if you believe you can contribute meaningfully to it (34:00) 
  • Existing in little space (35:00) 
  • Antidisciplinary (36:00) 
  • NASA = ‘bureaucratic manifestation of all that makes us human’ (38:00) 
    • Study the far off places that only exist in our imagination 
    • Takes our humanity and our human spirit to the limit 
  • Communicating difficult things (44:00) 
  • It is our responsibility to understand why others feel and think the way that they do (50:45) 
  • Physics is better behaved than social science (58:00) 
  • Put yourself in a place of understanding why someone may feel differently than you (59:00) 
    • Put the energy into understanding a divergent perspective from yours 
  • Lightning Round (1:02:00): 
  • Enjoy the challenge to think differently 
  • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ series  


    • ]]>
  • Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) (06:00) 
  • One of ten people to be ’NASA Chief Scientist' 
  • Being led around by your curiosity 
    • ‘Pulls' from our earliest ages in life (07:30) 
  • The Arctic from space (10:00) 
    • The ’space-based perspective' 
  • ’No better compass than your emotions’ (11:30) 
    • Constructive emotions 
  • Opportunities to connect mind and body (14:00) 
  • Love of career and love of family (23:30) 
  • “It has to give you energy and not drain energy from you" (25:00) 
  • What he tells his students (28:00) 
    • Think about the act of learning 
  • The goal: learn, grow, have new experiences (30:00) 
  • Becoming comfortable with discomfort - not that hard if you believe in it and if you believe you can contribute meaningfully to it (34:00) 
  • Existing in little space (35:00) 
  • Antidisciplinary (36:00) 
  • NASA = ‘bureaucratic manifestation of all that makes us human’ (38:00) 
    • Study the far off places that only exist in our imagination 
    • Takes our humanity and our human spirit to the limit 
  • Communicating difficult things (44:00) 
  • It is our responsibility to understand why others feel and think the way that they do (50:45) 
  • Physics is better behaved than social science (58:00) 
  • Put yourself in a place of understanding why someone may feel differently than you (59:00) 
    • Put the energy into understanding a divergent perspective from yours 
  • Lightning Round (1:02:00): 
  • Enjoy the challenge to think differently 
  • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ series  


    • ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-4354964 Tue, 30 Jun 2020 04:00:00 -0400 4042 2 7 full false     Episode 20: Cecilia Conrad - Steward of the MacArthurs Genius Grants, 100 Million Dollars, and Transcendent Empowerment Episode 20: Cecilia Conrad - Steward of the MacArthurs Genius Grants, 100 Million Dollars, and Transcendent Empowerment Show Notes: 

    • Privilege brings with it a sense of responsibility (4:00) 
    • Empowering others - "nurturing, supporting, and uplifting" (5:30) 
      • “Talent in unexpected locations" 
    • Levels of impact: individual and systems (7:45) 
    • Carrying people with you (8:20) 
    • POSSE Foundation (8:40) 
    • Compensatory and Distributive Justice (9:00) 
    • What she tells her students (10:45) 
    • Most proud of integrating race and gender into economics programs (11:00) 
      • What we are missing in the discourses of race and gender 
    • Difficult to reshape pre-conceived notions unless you allow everyone to explore (13:00) 
    • Interconnectedness of society and systems level thinking (14:00) 
    • Cecilia’s message during COVID-19 (15:00) 
    • The Top 100 from 100&Change Respond to COVID-19 (16:30) 
    • “We don’t have the luxury of backing away from challenges to focus on a single one” (18:30) 
    • MacArthur Fellows Program (19:00) 
      • Characteristics of fellows (24:30) 
      • Howard Gardner “fruitful asynchrony” and his book Creating Minds (26:00) 
    • Role of poetry in Cecilia’s life (27:50) 
      • Her published poem “Apathy" 
    • The Poetry Foundation (29:15) 
    • The On Being Project (30:00) 
    • Finding hope and despair right now (31:00) 
    • Second-line show for healthcare workers (32:15) 
    • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ series  
    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    • Privilege brings with it a sense of responsibility (4:00) 
    • Empowering others - "nurturing, supporting, and uplifting" (5:30) 
      • “Talent in unexpected locations" 
    • Levels of impact: individual and systems (7:45) 
    • Carrying people with you (8:20) 
    • POSSE Foundation (8:40) 
    • Compensatory and Distributive Justice (9:00) 
    • What she tells her students (10:45) 
    • Most proud of integrating race and gender into economics programs (11:00) 
      • What we are missing in the discourses of race and gender 
    • Difficult to reshape pre-conceived notions unless you allow everyone to explore (13:00) 
    • Interconnectedness of society and systems level thinking (14:00) 
    • Cecilia’s message during COVID-19 (15:00) 
    • The Top 100 from 100&Change Respond to COVID-19 (16:30) 
    • “We don’t have the luxury of backing away from challenges to focus on a single one” (18:30) 
    • MacArthur Fellows Program (19:00) 
      • Characteristics of fellows (24:30) 
      • Howard Gardner “fruitful asynchrony” and his book Creating Minds (26:00) 
    • Role of poetry in Cecilia’s life (27:50) 
      • Her published poem “Apathy" 
    • The Poetry Foundation (29:15) 
    • The On Being Project (30:00) 
    • Finding hope and despair right now (31:00) 
    • Second-line show for healthcare workers (32:15) 
    • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ series  
    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-3985403 Thu, 04 Jun 2020 04:00:00 -0400 2077 full false     Episode 19: Kristian Lum - Lifelong curiosity and Criminal Justice Reform through data Episode 19: Kristian Lum - Lifelong curiosity and Criminal Justice Reform through data Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-3797624 Sun, 17 May 2020 15:00:00 -0400 3128 2 4 full false     Episode 18: José Cotto - Creator, inspirer, and cultural entrepreneur across scales Episode 18: José Cotto - Creator, inspirer, and cultural entrepreneur across scales Show Notes: 

    • Grew up knowing possibility and that people create things (8:30) 
    • Being around art, there was always another reality that could be made (9:00) 
    • How do you sit with tension? (10:00) 
      • The thing that allows me to maintain balance in the present - keep moving at the pace that feels most fulfilling and productive in the moment 
      • Find comfort in the tension  
    • Poetry is complex enough to hold the tension of human experience - pair with Brené Brown's thoughts (12:15) 
    • Love of poetry (12:30)  
    • Pedagogy (20:15) 
    • "The way that you move is going to get you to where you need to get” (22:15) 
    • Community empowerment (24:30) 
      • Create. Inspire. Support. 
      • What is it about the physical environment that is preventing people from being about to leave?  
    • Community is everything (30:00) 
    • What do you tell people to help them embrace the moment? (31:00) 
    • Concept of scale (space and time) (32:15) 
    • The Bayou St. John, New Orleans (35:00) 
    • Human-level scale and humanizing things (35:30) 
    • Regaining lost focus (42:00) 
      • Taking long breaths and breathing practice 
      • “The thing that I value most is breathing” (42:30) 
    • Perspective on pandemics and COVID-19 (45:00) 
    • Lightning round (48:15) 
    • Human beings not human doers (55:30) 
    • Find José online: 
    • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ series  
    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    • Grew up knowing possibility and that people create things (8:30) 
    • Being around art, there was always another reality that could be made (9:00) 
    • How do you sit with tension? (10:00) 
      • The thing that allows me to maintain balance in the present - keep moving at the pace that feels most fulfilling and productive in the moment 
      • Find comfort in the tension  
    • Poetry is complex enough to hold the tension of human experience - pair with Brené Brown's thoughts (12:15) 
    • Love of poetry (12:30)  
    • Pedagogy (20:15) 
    • "The way that you move is going to get you to where you need to get” (22:15) 
    • Community empowerment (24:30) 
      • Create. Inspire. Support. 
      • What is it about the physical environment that is preventing people from being about to leave?  
    • Community is everything (30:00) 
    • What do you tell people to help them embrace the moment? (31:00) 
    • Concept of scale (space and time) (32:15) 
    • The Bayou St. John, New Orleans (35:00) 
    • Human-level scale and humanizing things (35:30) 
    • Regaining lost focus (42:00) 
      • Taking long breaths and breathing practice 
      • “The thing that I value most is breathing” (42:30) 
    • Perspective on pandemics and COVID-19 (45:00) 
    • Lightning round (48:15) 
    • Human beings not human doers (55:30) 
    • Find José online: 
    • 'Five-Cut Fridays’ series  
    ]]>     Buzzsprout-3328372 Wed, 15 Apr 2020 04:00:00 -0400 3533 full false     Episode 17: Brian Janosch - Redefining creativity in all spaces Episode 17: Brian Janosch - Redefining creativity in all spaces Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-3115162 Tue, 24 Mar 2020 22:00:00 -0400 4248 2 3 full false     Episode 16: Martin Storksdieck - Visionary of lifelong learning Episode 16: Martin Storksdieck - Visionary of lifelong learning Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-2995585 Fri, 13 Mar 2020 04:00:00 -0400 3629 2 2 full false     Episode 15: Rachel Young - Designing cultures of learning Episode 15: Rachel Young - Designing cultures of learning Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-2689696 Thu, 13 Feb 2020 04:00:00 -0500 3807 2 1 full false     Episode 14: Antti Pulkkinen - The art of explosive learning and blazing new trails in science Episode 14: Antti Pulkkinen - The art of explosive learning and blazing new trails in science Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-2364482 Sat, 28 Dec 2019 13:00:00 -0500 3108 science, art, space, heliophysics, explosion, NASA, philosophy, design, space mission, space weather, management, leadership 1 14 full false     Episode 13: Aoife Van Linden Tol - Explosions of art in science, and science in art Episode 13: Aoife Van Linden Tol - Explosions of art in science, and science in art Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-1972375 Thu, 31 Oct 2019 23:00:00 -0400 3689 science, art, culture, humanities, space, heliophysics, explosion, NASA, ESA, future, philosophy, design 1 13 full false     Episode 12: Rajesh Gupta - The Didactic Data Scientist and Tireless Change Maker Episode 12: Rajesh Gupta - The Didactic Data Scientist and Tireless Change Maker Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-1887367 Thu, 17 Oct 2019 21:00:00 -0400 3582 data science, complexity, education, art, design, engineering, science, machine learning, philosophy 1 12 full false     Episode 11: Bill Diamond - The nexus of Silicon Valley and science Episode 11: Bill Diamond - The nexus of Silicon Valley and science Show Notes: 


    ]]>     Show Notes: 


    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-1663729 Fri, 06 Sep 2019 21:00:00 -0400 3795 seti, machine learning, space science, cosmos, science, artificial intelligence, NASA, art, design, engineering, silicon valley, business 1 11 full false     Episode 10: Nicky Fox - Trailblazer of Trans-disciplinary at NASA Episode 10: Nicky Fox - Trailblazer of Trans-disciplinary at NASA Show Notes:

    ]]>     Show Notes:

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-1619215 Wed, 28 Aug 2019 22:00:00 -0400 3655 NASA, transdisciplinary, heliophysics, space weather, parker solar probe, science, space, art, design, engineering, 1 10 full false     Episode 09: Andrés Muñoz-Jaramillo - Science's Humanist Entrepreneur Episode 09: Andrés Muñoz-Jaramillo - Science's Humanist Entrepreneur Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-1518751 Wed, 07 Aug 2019 20:00:00 -0400 3632 data science, solar physics, space science, NASA Frontier Development Laboratory, machine learning, living with a star, space weather 1 9 full false     Episode 08: Kirk Borne - Data science storyteller and influencer Episode 08: Kirk Borne - Data science storyteller and influencer Show Notes:  

    ]]>     Show Notes:  

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-1215743 Thu, 30 May 2019 22:00:00 -0400 4340 data science, engineering, NASA, space physics, astrophysics, data literate, machine learning, statistics, storytelling 1 8 full false     Episode 07: Matt Russo - DJ to the Cosmos Episode 07: Matt Russo - DJ to the Cosmos Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-1158761 Fri, 17 May 2019 15:00:00 -0400 2705 1 7 full false     Episode 06: Chris Mattmann - NASA's data scientist Episode 06: Chris Mattmann - NASA's data scientist Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-1085717 Fri, 03 May 2019 21:00:00 -0400 3056 data science, engineering, NASA, science, software, developer, programming, machine learning, data analysis, design, art, culture, space 1 6 full false     Episode 05: Kerry Larkin - Making space for a beautiful life Episode 05: Kerry Larkin - Making space for a beautiful life Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-1036285 Fri, 12 Apr 2019 00:00:00 -0400 2898 career, culture, science, art, design, engineering, discovery, quilting, architecture, Big Yellow Arrow, sacred 1 5 full false     Episode 04: Professor Jayachandran - The ionosphere entrepreneur Episode 04: Professor Jayachandran - The ionosphere entrepreneur Show Notes: 

      

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

      

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-981974 Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0500 2853 ionosphere, space weather, science, art, engineering, design 1 4 full false     Episode 03: Jacob Bortnik - Pioneer of space physics Episode 03: Jacob Bortnik - Pioneer of space physics Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan / Jacob Bortnik Buzzsprout-981965 Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0500 3060 machine learning, science, space physics, NASA, art, design, culture, society 1 3 full false     Episode 02: Lika Guhathakurta - Space Visionary Episode 02: Lika Guhathakurta - Space Visionary Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Show Notes: 

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan / Lika Guhathakurta Buzzsprout-981957 Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0500 3148 space science, NASA, society, culture, art, design, career 1 2 full false     Trailer - Origins - Origins Series Trailer - Origins - Origins Series Origins are conversations with thought-leaders across an eclectic mix of disciplines (science, engineering, art, and design), crafted specifically for the category-defying society that we live in.

    Listen to the trailer now!

    ]]>     Origins are conversations with thought-leaders across an eclectic mix of disciplines (science, engineering, art, and design), crafted specifically for the category-defying society that we live in.

    Listen to the trailer now!

    ]]>     Ryan McGranaghan Buzzsprout-981941 Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0500 60 career, culture, science, art, design, engineering, discovery 1 1 trailer false