Though comprehensive, on-the-ground reporting from Xinjiang is sparse, BuzzFeed News reporter Megha Rajagopalan has been on the story from the beginning. She joins the podcast to discuss her reports from Xinjiang itself, and how she worked with BuzzFeed contributors to monitor the internment camps using satellite imagery, finding that they are expanding.
Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
OUTLINE:
00:00 – Introduction
07:14 – Key moments in history of physics
12:43 – Philosophy of science
14:37 – Science and computational reducibility
22:08 – Predicting the pandemic
38:58 – Sunburn moment with Wolfram Alpha
39:46 – Computational irreducibility
46:45 – Theory of everything
52:41 – General relativity
1:01:16 – Quantum mechanics
1:06:46 – Unifying the laws of physics
1:12:01 – Wolfram Physics Project
1:29:53 – Emergence of time
1:34:11 – Causal invariance
1:53:03 – Deriving physics from simple rules on hypergraphs
2:07:24 – Einstein equations
2:13:04 – Simulating the physics of the universe
2:17:28 – Hardware specs of the simulation
2:24:37 – Quantum mechanics in Wolfram physics model
2:42:46 – Double-slit experiment
2:45:13 – Quantum computers
2:53:21 – Getting started with Wolfram physics project
3:14:46 – The rules that created our universe
3:24:22 – Alien intelligences
3:32:29 – Meta-mathematics
3:37:58 – Why is math hard?
3:52:55 – Sabine Hossenfelder and how beauty leads physics astray
4:01:07 – Eric Weinstein and Geometric Unity
4:06:17 – Travel faster than speed of light
4:16:59 – Why does the universe exist at all
Adam Wathan has been obsessed with computers since he was a kid. In fact, he was introduced to computers by his 1st grade librarian.. and his first programming project was using Q-Basic, following a tutorial on how to make a pro wrestling simulator.
During his time in university, he wasn't enjoying the programming curriculum and ended up dropping out to play in his band, and working odd jobs to support his music career. During this, he got into the production side of music, and started a home studio to record local bands. Four years after he quit programming, he started tinkering with the same framework used to make Winamp - called reaper - and fell in love with pogromming all over again. At this point, he tried school again, but post internship, he decided to go straight into the field without finishing his degree.
These days, he is married with a young family. Besides staying busy with that, he still finds time to play games with his remote friends, and occasionally trains for powerlifting. He met his business partner, Steve, in college, and hacked on side projects together. These side projects led to the creation of a mini CSS framework, which Wathan started using throughout other projects, growing it into something he was quite proud of. In fact, while live-streaming some coding, he was surprised by the influx of people asking what it was... and where they could get it. He decided to open source the framework in 2017, and it has steadily grown and grown in usage - to the tune of millions of downloads a month.
This is the creation story of Tailwind CSS and Tailwind Labs.
Sophie founded Rest of World in 2019 after a decade of living and working across Asia, Africa & the Middle East, and with companies like Uber and Xiaomi. She graduated from Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Kennedy School and Princeton University. Sophie is based in New York. Read why she started this publication in her founder’s note. You can subscribe to Rest of World's newsletter here.
In this week's episode we talk about Okash, a peer-to-peer lending app that show what happens when you gamify public social shaming.
We explore honjok, a South Korean sub-culture that emphasizes a movement away from ambitious professionalism and towards a more stoic loner lifestyle. In some ways, the apps, services, and online communities that formed around this tribe perfectly predicted what many people are experiencing in 2020. "The accidental pioneers of a lifestyle that has been forced on all of us," as Sophie explains.
And finally, we explore what it takes to break into the world of digital finance in Indonesia, where a board of clerics must certify that your code halal - consistent with Islamic religion and law - before you can break into a market of more than 220 million potential customers.
Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
OUTLINE:
00:00 – Introduction
06:20 – Epigenome
10:28 – Evolution
15:26 – Neanderthals
27:15 – Origin of life on Earth
43:44 – Life is a fight against physics
49:56 – Life as a set of transformations
51:35 – Time scales
1:00:31 – Transformations of ideas in human civilization
1:05:19 – Life is more than a rat race
1:13:18 – Life sucks sometimes and that’s okay
1:30:16 – Getting older
1:36:21 – The best of MIT
1:49:01 – Poem 1: The Snow
2:01:52 – Love
2:06:16 – Poem 2: The Tide Waters
PHPUgly streams the recording of this podcast live. Typically every Thursday night around 9 PM PT. Come and join us, and subscribe to our Youtube Channel, Twitch, or Periscope. Also be sure to check out our Patreon Page.
Along with her work writing and editing, Stephanie works as a product manager at Microsoft and runs Developer Content Digest, a biweekly newsletter with content tips. She has worked for companies like Digital Ocean, Github, and General Assembly.
