Author Archive for: The Portal Group
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The Portal Podcast #013: Garry Kasparov – Avoiding Zugzwang in AI and Politics
In this cordially combative episode, Eric sits down with Russian chess legend, multiple-year champion and (inarguably) one of the greatest players of all time, Garry Kasparov. The two discuss transcending AI-induced demotivation, AI brilliancy (and lack thereof), the perilous time for global democracy in Russia, America and globally and Garry’s penchant for risking his life […]
The Portal Podcast #012: Vitalik Buterin – The Ethereal Prince and His Virtual Machine
In this episode, Vitalik Buterin sits down with Eric to discuss ethereum, the wider world of crypto and heterodox economics. Taking note of the new development of blockchain in 2010, Eric wrote an essay called “Go Virtual Young Man”. A few years later, a Thiel Fellow named Vitalik created a virtual machine with an idiosyncratic […]
The Portal Podcast #011: Sam Harris – Fighting with Friends
On this episode of The Portal, Eric talks to one of his closest friends, neuroscientist, philosopher and meditation-guru, Sam Harris. When Sam and Eric sit down they generally agree about a large number of things. So in this experiment of a session, Eric attempts to push the relentlessly reasonable and methodical Sam out of his […]
The Portal Podcast #010: Julie Lindahl – Shaking the poisoned fruit of shame out of the family tree
Eric sits down with Julie Lindahl, author of “The Pendulum”. What happens when an ethnically German girl growing up in Brazil gets curious to finally make sense of her family history to stop the cycle of dysfunction? Julie Lindahl’s new book “The Pendulum” shows us what it can take to find a portal out of […]
The Portal Podcast #009: Bryan Callen – Cracking Wise
Eric sits down with friend, philosopher, comic, actor and fighter Bryan Callen for a wide ranging conversation on camaraderie, conflict and comedy. Over the course of 2+ hours, the two discuss difficult topics like the holocaust, gender dynamics and the legacy of the enlightenment on the eve of the 2020 presidential election. Bryan and Eric […]