Triangulation 432: Daniel Suarez: Critical Mass - Daniel Suarez on his latest book 'Critical Mass'

In a wide-ranging conversation, Leo Laporte talks with Dr. George Church about the history and future of genome sequencing. Dr. Church explains why he is very excited about how they made an organism resistant to all viruses- both known and unknown.  

They also talk about: 

• How Dr. Church made sequencing affordable (from $3BN to $600)
• Where are we on sequencing the entire human genome, and why would we even want to?
• How close are we to reversing aging?
• Should we use gene therapy to double the human lifespan?
• Why genetically engineering cold-resistant elephants could be important for climate change, and what about ultimately bringing back the Mammoth?
• He explains the difference between the hype and reality of CRISPR
• sequencing, synthesis, and delivery
• What are the privacy concerns about companies sharing your genome?
• They discuss the controversy and benefit of reconstructing old viruses like the 1918 flu and even inventing new viruses.

Dr. Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in personal genetics. He is credited with developing the first methods for sequencing the first genome and also the CRISPR technology. He created several companies, including Nebula Genomics and Veritas Genetics.

Host: Leo Laporte

Guest: Dr. George Church

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New York Times bestselling author Daniel Suarez returns to talk with Leo Laporte about the second book in his 'Delta-v' novel series, 'Critical Mass,' where a group of pioneering astropreneurs must overcome never-before-attempted engineering challenges to rescue colleagues stranded at a distant asteroid—kicking off a new space race in which Earth's climate crisis could well hang in the balance. 

Get 'Critical Mass': https://amzn.to/3Yjb9xu

Host: Leo Laporte

Guest: Daniel Suarez

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Writer/activist Cory Doctorow and scholar Rebecca Giblin join Leo Laporte to talk about their latest book Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back. They argue that we're in a new era of "chokepoint capitalism," with exploitative businesses creating insurmountable barriers to competition that enable them to capture value that should rightfully go to others.

Get "Chokepoint Capitalism": https://chokepointcapitalism.com

Host: Leo Laporte

Guests: Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin

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Tripp Mickle joins Leo Laporte to discuss his new book, "After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul". They discuss the shift in Apple's dynamic and approach to products after the passing of Steve Jobs from a company of innovation with Jony Ive, to a company of efficiency under Tim Cook.

Host: Leo Laporte

Guest: Tripp Mickle

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Amy Webb joins Leo Laporte to discuss her new book, "The Genesis Machine." Webb explains synthetic biology, tells the story of golden rice, and shares a glimpse of the future and the changes we can expect.

Get "The Genesis Machine": https://amzn.to/3BC7K2t

Host: Leo Laporte

Guest: Amy Webb

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Leo Laporte interviews Andy Weir, author of "The Martian," about his new book, "Project Hail Mary." The discussion starts out spoiler-free with a chat about making the book into a film, how Andy Weir approached writing this book, and the time he confused Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling. After a loud and apparent spoiler warning (at 32:04), the two continue their chat by discussing "Project Hail Mary" in depth. Weir shares a bit about the science behind the book, the characters he's created, and other stories he's working on.

Project Hail Mary: https://amzn.to/3hLcStp
The Martian: https://amzn.to/3v9LUiU
Artemis: https://amzn.to/3vahYDf

Host: Leo Laporte

Guest: Andy Weir

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Jason Howell is joined by TWiT's studio engineer to talk about his time as the drummer and founder of the progressive rock band Cairo, creating the Virtual Live Show, and how the intersection of music and tech has evolved.

Cairo on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/JeffBrockmanDirector

Virtual Live Show on Twitter: https://twitter.com/virtualliveshow

Host: Jason Howell

Guest: Jeff Brockman

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Flynn Coleman, writer, and international human rights attorney, joins Denise Howell to talk about her book A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence Is Redefining Who We Are. Flynn argues that we must instill values, ethics, and morals into our robots, algorithms, and other forms of AI by developing and implement laws, policies, and oversight mechanisms to protect us from tech's insidious threats.

Get "A Human Algorithm": https://amzn.to/2rIqgH6

Host: Denise Howell

Guest: Flynn Coleman

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Stephen Wolfram is a computer scientist who designed Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha, and the Wolfram Language. He talks to Mikah Sargent about translating between human language, mathematics, and programming languages, how computational language works, and how he has spent his life trying to build computational intelligence up.

Host: Mikah Sargent

Guest: Stephen Wolfram

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation.

Sponsors:

• capterra.com/triangulation
• LastPass.com/twit

Margaret O'Mara, Professor of History at the University of Washington, joins Mikah Sargent to talk about her book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. They dive into the behind-the-scenes history of Silicon Valley, including how the Cold War shaped what Stanford University is today, shine a light on some of the unsung heroes like Ann Hardy and David Morgenthaler, and the legacy of Steve Jobs.

Get "The Code": https://amzn.to/32ozIwm

Host: Mikah Sargent

Guest: Margaret O'Mara

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation.

Sponsor:

• LastPass.com/twit