Origins Podcast with Ryan McGranaghan

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: Preferential attachmentThe Science of ScienceBridgingHis first and second papers in network scienceDanielle Allenhttps://lazerlab.net/home'network based decision making'Hélène Landemore epistemic democracyNortheastern University Network Science InstituteCenter for Complex Network ResearchAlessandro VespignaniJános KertészLet Them Not SayCommonplace bookThe Foundation TrilogyHidden Patterns exhibition150 years of Naturehttps://barabasi.com/Five-Cut FridaysLászló’s playlist Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media<

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

Origins Podcast Website Flourishing Commons Newsletter and the post introducing Great Asking Show Notes: Sara Hendren's Origins ConversationIgnoranceThe Division of Cognitive LaborSara's substackHoward GardnerParticipatory readinessLiving the QuestionsSara's blog on voice memos vagus nerveneuroplasticityLetters to a Young PoetThe Virtues of Limitsthe healing is in the returnProust QuestionnaireSaraKristaLogo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez Music by Agasthya Pradhan Shenoy (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: Mark GranovetterSteve BarleyWoody PowellChris SummerfieldMetaknowledge Weaving the fabric of science: Dynamic network models of science's unfolding structureAbductionepistemic spaceClaude Lévi-StraussClifford GeertzDissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populationsScarcityThe Knowledge LabQuantifying the dynamics of failure across science, startups and securityCharles Sanders PeircePirkei AvotAlison Gopnik on explore-exploitthe 200-year presentJo GuldiThe Enigma of ReasonHod Lipson@profjamesevansThe Knowledge LabFive-Cut FridaysJames’ playlist Logo artwork Cristina Gonzalez Music by swelo

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: Krista Tippett On Being PodcastArthur ZajoncDaubechies waveletBell LabsMathemalchemyThe Bridges OrganizationTime to Break FreeMathemalchemy comic bookBridging tiesBurning ManPico IyerMuseum of MathematicsFlatiron InstituteThe Broken Earth seriesDigger by Ursula VernonTemarihttps://ece.duke.edu/faculty/ingrid-daubechiesThe Godmother of the Digital ImageFive-Cut FridaysIngrid’s playlist 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: Attorney for the Damned A History of the Modern World Carl HempelTalcott ParsonsBF SkinnerThe function of general laws in historyUniversal peeking out from the particularMax WeberNorbert WeinerThe Strength of Weak TiesThe Great Fear of 1789Harrison WhiteAnatol RapoportStanley MilgramDanielle AllenThreshold analysisEconomy and Society https://sociology.stanford.edu/people/mark-granovetterFive-Cut FridaysMark’s playlist Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

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: Jon KleinbergNortheastern Network Science InstituteAspirational pursuit of mates in online dating marketsWhat is a complex system?What science can do for democracy: a complexity science approachFaloutsosRon Burt Examining Responsibility and Deliberation in AI Impact Statements and Ethics ReviewsResearch group of the futureThe ground truth about metadata and community detection in networksFariba KarimiJane Eyrehttp://eliassi.org/Five-Cut FridaysTina’s playlist 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: TsundokuThe cost of honestytheory of mindMIT Media LabMarvin MinskyRoger Schankcultural metaphorsOcean VuongThe Architecture MachineBell LabsVienna CircleSociable Media GroupThe Social MachineFernanda ViégasChat CirclesGossip, Grooming, and the Evolution of LanguageRobin DunbarThe Strength of Weak Ties Berkman Klein CenterSignalling TheoryDaily Rituals: How Artists WorkThe Experimental NovelC Thi Nguyen OriginsThe Lord of the Rings Teju ColeWebsiteFive-Cut FridaysJudith’s playlistFlourishing SalonsLearning Salon AIArtwork 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: Games: Agency as ArtAnne HarringtonThe Great EndarkenmentTrust and AntitrustHostile EpistemologyThe natural selection of bad scienceThe GrasshopperContext Changes EverythingFinite and Infinite GamesUlysses and the Sirens Jon ElsterAndrea WestlundAnita SupersonHow Twitter gamifies communicationReiner KniziaOn Being Bored out of Your MindChildhood as a solution to the explore-exploit tradeoffExplanation as orgasm Adrian CurrieCailin O'ConnorKevin ZollmanPhilip KitcherRules: A Short History of What We Live By https://objectionable.net/@add_hawkThi’s Five-Cut Fridays playlistTyler Cowen 'reading in piles'Artwork Cristina Gonzalez Music swelo

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: Buckminster FullerPrincipia Mathematica Peter KropotkinMikhail BakuninCommonwealth Grants CommissionRangeDavid KrakauerClaude ShannonChaos Duncan WattsBarabási Albert-LászlóNetworks the lingua franca of complex systemsStephen WolframOpen ScienceAustralian National University School of CyberneticsAustralian Research Data CommonsGenevieve BellRoss Ashby's Law of Requisite VarietySara Hendren on OriginsSketch ModelAlex McDowell on OriginsThe Patterning InstinctTao Te Chinghttps://cybernetics.anu.edu.au/people/paul-wong/Five-Cut FridaysPaul’s playlist 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: multiple discoveryCurious MindsJulio Ottino on OriginsHope in the Dark David Lydon-StaleyneuroplasticityTalking to Strangers Amartya SenHippocampal system and mapping conceptual spacesNetworks as the lingua franca of complex systemsFollow My LeaderA Room of One's OwnAlice in WonderlandOn Earth We're Briefly GorgeousWebsite@DaniSBassettWebsite@perryzurnFive-Cut FridaysDani and Perry’s playlist 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: The Mathematical Foundations of Mixingmultiple discoveriesOliver SacksDario Robleto at the Block Museumwhole brain engineeringNorthwestern Institute on Complex SystemsLuis AmaralDaniel DiermeierDashun WangBrian UzziNoshir ContractorNexuswww.juliomarioottino.com/Collected FictionsFive-Cut FridaysJulio’s playlist Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

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: 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.

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: The Overview EffectThe Cosma HypothesisGerard K. O'Neillthe Space Studies InstituteHope in the DarkHolonomy: A Human Systems TheoryPale blue dotOverview InstituteSpace Frontier Foundationboundary objectsInstitute of Noetic SciencesHuman Space ProgramEdgar Mitchell and virtual realityWilliam James and noetical qualityDan HawkOrbital Assembly CorporationDanielle WoodWhat Matters in the EndFrom Age-ing to Sage-ingMaria PopovaThe High Frontier @fwhite66https://frankwhiteauthor.com/aboutFive-Cut FridaysFrank’s playlist

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: The Disappearing Art Of Maintenance'the simplicity on the other side of complexity'Back to Earth: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet and Our Mission to Protect It.The Overview EffectSpace for Art FoundationHealing the Heart of DemocracyDavid VaughanWest with the NightWomen in spaceSpace for Art FoundationWebsite@Astro_NicoleFive-Cut FridaysNicole’s playlist

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: Atlas Hugged SociobiologyAcceptance and Commitment TherapyLindon EavesElinor OstromEO WilsonElliott SoberOstrom design principles for governing the commonsThe Tragedy of the CommonsThe Neighborhood ProjectRichard A KauffmanThe Structure of Scientific RevolutionsNoospherePierre Teilhard de ChardinLynn MargulisDual inheritance theoryOrigin of SpeciesThe Secret of our SuccessThe WEIRDest People in the Worldhttps://davidsloanwilson.world/@David_S_Wilsonhttps://thisviewoflife.com/introducing-the-prosocial-commons/Five-Cut FridaysDavid’s playlist

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: Gödel, Escher, BachN Katherine HaylesWe have never been modernFranco MorettiCenter for Science and the ImaginationInnovation StarvationNeal StephensonHieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better FutureAdjacent possibleThis is waterCollaborative Imagination: A methodological approachWhat Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of ComputingEffective computabilityHalting ProblemTuring MachineWhy the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely StupidFlourishing Salons with the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of SciencesThe Diamond Ageveteran's imagination projectK-12 futures literacyCenter for Science and the Imagination@zonalWebsiteFive-Cut FridaysEd’s playlist

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: Quaker meetingStorytelling Shapes the FutureMinority ReportSceniusExperimental DesignMIT Media LabScott FisherNeuromancerCognitive estrangementNew language for molecular biology@worldbldghttps://alexmcdowell.design/Five-Cut FridaysAlex’s playlist

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: Jane HirshfieldPoets for ScienceFrancis WellerPrayer wheelsMaggie AndersonTraveling StanzasRobert Bly The Unsayable SaidMaj RagainDear VaccineNaomi Shihab NyeJonathan HaidtWilliam StaffordRichard Feynman's Ode to WonderHealing the Heart of DemocracyDear UkraineMarge PiercyNew Self, New WorldTeju Cole - sitting in the dark waiting for something to happenKent State University@DavidWickPoetryFive-Cut FridaysDavid’s playlist

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: Letters to a Young PoetDuino ElegiesUser Friendly Herbert SimonThe Self-Organizing Universe Cynefin FrameworkDave on Originsfour causesEmergenceBarabási Albert-LászlóSteven StrogatzMereologyOrder Out of ChaosJohn HollandGraceful ExtensibilityVector AnalyticaDanielle AllenFlourishing CommonsTragedy of the Commons by Governing the CommonsOrder Out of ChaosThe Design of Everyday ThingsUser Friendly WebsiteFive-Cut FridaysAlicia’s playlist