August 26, 2025 • 57 mins
Another inspiring conversation unfolds as Doug Crowe sits down with Mohan Ananda and Gary Goldstein to explore how storytelling continues to shape culture, technology, and even humanity’s path to the stars. Gary shares his journey from law to Hollywood to technology consulting, showing how reinvention and narrative drive both personal growth and societal change. The discussion also looks ahead to the Nextplore 2040 Summit, where the future of lunar and Martian exploration will be charted through collaboration, innovation, and the timeless power of human connection.
Top Takeaways-
Storytelling is more than entertainment—it remains a powerful driver of culture, innovation, and human progress.
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Gary Goldstein’s journey from law to Hollywood to technology illustrates the lifelong value of reinvention.
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Surrounding yourself with uplifting people accelerates personal and professional growth.
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The Nextplore 2040 Summit highlights humanity’s next frontier: lunar and Martian exploration.
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Believing in oneself and embracing community unlocks bold new possibilities for the future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
you
Welcome to the visionary show.
I've got a couple of guests on today and one of them is my cohost, but I'm going toinclude him as kind of a special guest as well.
It's not often you have a guest on or two people on the show that represented over atleast over 10, 15 billion, that's $15 billion of value generated in their careers.
(00:32):
Maybe more than that.
We can get the actual details, but I know for a fact that both of you guys have generatedbillions of dollars based on what you've been involved with as leaders.
in your respective industries.
So without further ado, let's get to it.
My name is Doug Crowe.
I'm the founder of Authir Brand and we have Mr.
Mohan Ananda, my co-host.
Mohan, how do you introduce yourself?
(00:53):
My name is Mohan Ananda and I've been working with the duck for years and I know our guestis here to me and take it away, duck.
All right, very good.
You used to say I'm an ordinary entrepreneur.
I used to smack you calling yourself an ordinary entrepreneur.
You're nothing but ordinary.
(01:14):
Yeah, our guest today um is a gentleman I've known for quite a while, Mr.
Gary Goldstein.
And when I mentioned the billions of dollars in revenue generated, that's because he usedto be in the entertainment industry and is responsible pretty much for the whole rom-com
genre is all I'm concerned.
The executive producer Pretty Woman, as well as Under Siege and his favorite one I think,The Mothman Prophecies.
(01:35):
So we'll talk a little bit
your background, Gary.
But first, I want to know about the man.
And then we'll get into the mission.
So we'll start with that.
How are you?
I am so well.
It's almost unlawful.
And it but but how can I have anything other than a brilliant day?
I'm with Mohan Ananda and Doug Crowe.
my gosh.
(01:55):
Nice gushing, gushing.
So we're going to get into the main thing we're doing nowadays, but I always like to talkabout a person's background and history.
And I know you're a recovering attorney and whatnot, but tell us how you got involved withthe entertainment business first, and then we'll lead into the current stuff you're doing
with technology.
The short version, hopefully short, when I was a kid, I was painfully shy.
(02:20):
I was a daydreamer.
And I fell in love with story.
I fell in love with books at a very young age.
And I just grew up living in this world of everything was story to me.
at that time, know, uh watched a lot of television as a kid, of course, and a lot of thoseshows were about attorneys and Perry Mason and all this.
(02:43):
And I just had this, I'm a romantic and uh a very naive romantic.
And I looked at all of these shows and thought,
wow, championing the underdog and having to tell great stories in a courtroom, God forbidsomething bad happens, right?
So I grew up with these crazy ideas about what it would be to be an attorney.
(03:05):
uh I went to college, I uh had great timing in life.
I grew up uh in San Francisco.
I born in New York, up in San Francisco, went to UC Berkeley undergrad at a time when itwas all the tumult, all the...
unseating of a president, the ending of a war, very dramatic time.
(03:26):
And back then we didn't have the word entrepreneur.
We, we, know, you, you either went into academia or you took a corporate job.
That was kind of the choice and neither appealed to me.
um And anyway, long story short, I discovered in San Francisco, part of San Francisco thatthis beautiful beleaguered community, we call it a ghetto.
(03:46):
It's the black community, wonderful, wonderful community.
And they had a foundation that was trying to be the solution on all fronts for thiscommunity.
So they had social workers and drug counseling and skills training and criminal defense inlieu of the public defender.
They defended the adult indigence of this community.
And I thought this, this is what I was dreaming about growing up.
(04:11):
I just didn't know it.
So I went out there, long hair hippie, and
I was terrified because I'd never been to the ghetto.
There were projects and it was like there were three white people and I just grabbed thefirst person I saw and I said, I need to work here.
And they looked at me.
You're afraid you'd an iron side versus Perry Mason, right?
a wheelchair.
(04:33):
They just thought I was crazy.
And they said, wait a are you an attorney?
I said, no, are you in law school?
No, not yet.
Well, we have no money and go away.
And I just wouldn't leave.
I just kept showing up.
And long story short, eventually they acquiesced and said, OK, I said, I want
just, I don't need money.
I just want to do one year internship for free.
I'll sweep the floors.
(04:53):
I don't care.
I just want to hang out here.
And that's what happened.
And they, they actually taught me uh more than you learn in law school in the course of ayear.
So I became very involved and I loved it and I was very inspired.
So I became, I went to law school to become a criminal defense lawyer because that's, thatwas what was in front of me.
(05:15):
And long story short, it was at
One of the most brilliant, have you ever had a phase of your life, an experience that waslike outstanding, brilliant, it helped form who you are as a human being, but you also
knew it was a terrible career choice for you.
And that's how I felt.
It was one of the most inspirational things.
(05:37):
I learned a ton, I made great friendships.
uh It aligned with my values, all that stuff, but it was a very dark, harsh world, and I'ma romantic, it wasn't gonna
So I quit and decided I still like storytelling is the thing.
And I just didn't know what that looked like.
(05:57):
And then suddenly I went, wait a minute, wait a minute.
There's this thing on a big screen called film that, I didn't grow up thinking I'd be afilmmaker, but I love film like everybody else.
And so I thought, you know what?
I'm gonna pack whatever fits into my Carmen Gia, my Volkswagen Carmen Gia.
I'm gonna leave everything I know.
(06:17):
kind of wanted to go on a new adventure and be anonymous, get out of San Francisco.
And so I drove down the coast and I came to LA.
I didn't know anybody.
And I certainly didn't know a thing about the business, but that's, you know, it was justa decision, a gut decision.
Like, again, very naive.
You don't jettison everything in your life thinking I'm going to go on this adventure andit'll work out somehow.
(06:41):
But I did.
And when I got to LA, uh
I joined an outdoor health club.
was the only thing where I could meet people.
Like who are the people that are gonna be there in the middle of the day on a sunny day ona Wednesday?
Creative people, right?
Freelancers.
So I joined and I went every day and I played hours of tennis and hours of paddle tennisand the pool and everybody became my five minute mentor.
(07:07):
And over the year I made 150, 200 or more friends.
And that's how I, one of them said, hey, if you know nothing about the business, justbecome a manager.
You don't need an agent, you know, a license like an agent.
Right.
Cause I didn't want to work in a company.
I wanted my own thing.
I wanted to do my own thing.
And so I became, I became a literary, I founded a literary management company representingunknown writers and directors.
(07:33):
And that was ungraceful the first several years, but eventually it became a really greatbusiness and I got good at it.
And I broke a lot of people into the business.
Long story short, the writers went on strike some years later.
shut business down and I said to one of my guys clients, you want to direct, you've neverdirected, dust off one of your scripts, I'm gonna produce it, I'll raise $17, we'll go
(07:58):
make a movie.
And we did, I raised $200,000, we made a feature, we were dumb and dumber.
But we got the- And that feature title was?
Okay, you know, I know what it is.
I'm gonna tell you don't say no cannibal women in the avocado jungle of death.
(08:19):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I got the bug.
I fell in love and decided yeah, I don't want to do that.
Now I'm just gonna be a film producer.
That's it.
I love it.
Of course, we didn't end with cannibal women the avocado jungle of death.
He did move on to do pretty woman.
I'm sure she's often prophecies.
Yeah.
So you know, made a little dent there.
(08:42):
I was a very, yeah, I loved the process.
didn't like, honestly, I never really liked the business or the culture of Hollywood.
I just loved the creative process.
I loved working with writers and directors and actors and talent.
know, it was like that lit me up.
And frankly, I don't, you just never know if a particular story is going to hit a chordwith an audience.
(09:08):
You use your best judgment.
check with your gut and your heart and your mind and but but it's a gamble right.
But I did love story I read thousands of scripts literally I I think I read 1213,000scripts over over the course of my time there.
And I had a pretty good gut.
(09:29):
But I got lucky let's face it, know, I I made a couple of independent here's where I gotlucky I met a couple of low budget no budget indie films that no one has ever seen my
family included.
And then I got this one script from one of my clients.
I asked him to, he was a new client.
His college stuff was too collegey quirky.
(09:51):
said, you're very talented, but you need to write a new script and it needs to be aromance.
And I don't care if it's comedy or drama.
And I said that because he was 23.
He was 23.
He had just ended his first great love relationship of five years.
had his girlfriend had left him.
And I thought.
And he wrote great women characters very complex beautiful women characters And I thoughtwho do you ask to write a romance if not a broken-hearted guy who's a brilliant writer?
(10:20):
So he handed me a script that was a drama not a comedy called 3000 which I Won't tell youthe story.
It'll take three hours But that's the script that eventually I set up at Disney and thatwas transformed into a comedy and it's called pretty woman it became
Yeah, their highest grossing live action picture in their history and still to this day,it's, you know, 30.
(10:45):
It's it's a dream for any producer to have one, even one title in your filmography thatgives that has a life that's 35 years and still as strong, if not stronger than it ever
was, giving joy all around the globe to generations of viewers.
So, yeah, I would like to get it.
(11:08):
I just want to make a statement.
The Pretty Woman is one of my, I wouldn't say one, one.
It is my most favorite movie.
whenever I tell people I know who started that movie, I become more important to them.
So this is not an exaggeration.
(11:30):
It's an honest statement.
I just want to.
I don't know, Mohan.
I think I'm go with Cannibal Women and the Apokado Jungle of Death is one of my favorites.
Actually, Undersiege has a really good story behind it.
If we have time for that short story on that, that'd be really interesting.
Talk about the impact of a story where I think you said a nuclear safety officer saw themovie, Gary.
(11:52):
Yeah, I was I was giving a talk to an audience in somewhere in Orange County.
I forget what it was, but.
afterward uh in the uh lobby and there were a lot of people milling around and people werecoming up to me and this young fella came up to me with his young bride um and he said I
want to thank you for that film um and he said I want to share a story if I may and I saidof course by all means and it turns out and I'm gonna get this wrong but he was he was in
(12:24):
the service um and I believe it was the Navy
And it was the Navy.
And but I believe it was a battleship.
In any event, whatever the I was never in the military, you might you might have guessed.
I don't know the the vernacular vocabulary, but he was on a battleship.
He was in charge of security because this battleship was armed with nuclear weapons.
(12:47):
So this was a big deal.
Well, he the story was that uh not long before the movie came out, the uh
starting at the Oval Office and the Department of Defense, they decided to strip all thebudgets for security on board these battleships.
They'd never had a problem.
(13:08):
They were being cost-conscious, et cetera, et He said, and it was horrifying, it wasterrifying that we actually now, I was in charge of it, I had no budget and there was no
real security.
And your film comes out and you shook up the military apparatus.
They watched this film and because the,
Yes, it was a fantastic plot, but a lot of the environments and the language that we usedwas actually authentic.
(13:35):
We had a lot of consultants, know, admirals and all sorts of people.
And they said it just hit a chord where they said, oh my God, this could happen.
It's a film, it's preposterous, but it could happen.
And they reinstated all of the budgets and re-engaged all of the security on thebattleships.
It was like, you know,
(13:57):
And at first, I, you know, like you couldn't make that up, right?
Yeah.
Mohan, you got some, you guys experienced in the military, not directly, but indirectly, Iknow.
So I don't know if you have any comments on that.
Yeah.
My military experience is really uh two oh areas.
(14:19):
One, I worked with the North American Defense Command in Shan Mountain in ColoradoSprings.
And some of the things or many of the things I did, I can't talk about it.
Let me start from there.
However, this is where, right now, actually it has expanded into what they call the GoldenDome.
(14:43):
The idea is to protect the US from any intrusion or any missiles coming to our area.
So most of the work, this is many, many years ago, the NORAD that's known, it still iscontinuous.
uh It's based on land-based, air-based, and sea-based defense systems.
(15:10):
Whereas today, of course, they continue with those three-based, but it's mostly going tobe space-based.
They started as strategic defense initiative.
Now we are going into the Golden Dome, which is very similar to Iron Dome, which actuallyprotected or protect Israel, but it's all land-based.
(15:33):
But we are now going into a complete space-based protection, and it is going to beamazing, meaning nothing can penetrate to the soul.
That's the type of area I have worked with.
I was involved in addition to that.
As you know that I'm one of the primary architects of a global positioning system and GPSis a weapon system and that is how we get, we can go and drop a bomb through a chimney or
(16:08):
any minute thing you can think of.
In fact, we can even drop on an individual walking on the road.
mean, as clear as, so that is the path of GPS, but anyway.
That's why we have under siege influencing DOD spending and Star Wars affecting whatyou're doing.
That's great.
(16:31):
Gary, you guys.
I was just going to say, know, and both of those, Mohan, I have a feeling where thisconversation is going are going to both be very relevant to where we end up.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And now, now, in addition to that, now we are kind of
on a journey with AI.
(16:52):
And I think today's discussion will be a lot about AI, but AI is going to take dominancein every aspect of life, and in particular in the defense system, they're making, because
we don't want a lot of people involved, we want machine to react instantly.
(17:13):
Yeah, I saw that movie too.
All right, well speaking of technology, that's where we're going to go with these.
You guys have both had...
both attorneys, both brilliant people.
And so Gary, this is more about you, man.
You were in entertainment and you mentioned something which I sensed the first time I wentout there.
I didn't last two weeks in LA about the business environment, not being the same as thecreative environment.
(17:36):
So at some point you said, you know what, fun, thank you guys, I'm gonna do somethingdifferent.
And that's I think when I met you, we started talking about different things in the world.
So tell us how you got from entertainment to where you are today and then you can tell usa little bit about where you are.
uh Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting journey because I can't take credit for being veryclever.
(17:58):
uh But when I realized that I really didn't want to spend the rest of my years uh makingmovies in Hollywood, it was I had an enormously successful, wonderful run.
It set me up.
You know, when you make films.
It's a really interesting thing.
It's a business that has such global allure.
(18:21):
And when you're lucky enough to make one or more films that have, and know, Under Siegehas a huge global audience, Pretty Woman is ridiculous, and so on and so forth.
So a lot of doors swung open.
And I was able to travel the world and, you know, meet, and actually I started apartnership on a business years ago.
(18:41):
with the gentleman who is now the president of South Africa.
He had been in Robben Island in prison with Mandela for those 27 years.
you know, like that wasn't because my name's Gary Goldstein, a kid from Long Island.
No, it was because of the film.
And that, so I've been very blessed and I've had access to, and I've always had this idea.
(19:07):
uh And this is because my dad, frankly, uh that whenever my work, my work was one thing,but my secret mission since I was fairly young was what I called harvesting genius.
was to go throughout my life, the path of my life, identifying brilliant people, people Iadmire, people that inspire me, people that are making a dent in the world and doing
(19:31):
really interesting things, regardless of geography or industry sector at all.
So my job was to befriend these people.
And as a result, if I read a book that inspired me, would be a stalker.
I would find the author, and I'd track him down, and I'd call him.
And we'd become in time friends.
I did this with speakers, with authors, with strangers.
(19:54):
And so my greatest riches are the friendships that I've developed.
And they're not a few dozen.
It's hundreds and hundreds of really extraordinary people.
And I was trying to think, like, if I were to step outside of Hollywood, because we don'tsee ourselves well, we have a different story about ourself than we do.
(20:15):
You know, I see the value and opportunity in every person in business.
But about myself, it's like, eh, I'm not so good.
You know, I'm not really employable.
So what would it look like if I could do the things?
I love storytelling.
really, I will finally say this many years, I'm actually really good at it.
By the same token, I'm really good at strategy.
(20:36):
I see and connect in invisible dives really well.
The less I know about a person's business, the more effective I am.
And I started to think, what would that look like?
And I thought, maybe I could be a consultant.
And then I thought, no, I can't do that.
Because consultants, they have five best sellers on the New York Times list.
They have websites that go on for days.
(20:58):
And there's 17 ways to connect with them.
And I can't do all that.
That's not me.
You know, so at one point I said, okay, maybe I have to stop looking at the world as amarketplace and where do I fit in?
And maybe I should focus on me, my humanity, me as a human being.
And what is it that I want to wake up and feel?
(21:20):
What do I want to experience?
What are the feelings that I'm looking for?
And when I did that, it was very clear.
I wanted two things.
I far greater significance.
I wanted to make choices and spend my time in the service of things that felt like legacyabout which I would be very proud at the end of my life.
And that would also, I'm very, very curious.
(21:42):
I've always been very curious and that would constantly feed me a new meal where I'd learnevery day and meet exalted people every day.
And um so significance was the first.
And the second word that was part of my mantra was freedom.
I want the freedom to travel.
literally and metaphorically.
(22:03):
And long story short, you know, I'm not, I'm not, you know, that wealthy, but I've doneokay.
And I started looking and saying, you know, I don't like the way most people invest theirmoney.
I don't want to do that.
I tried it.
I was terrible at it.
I lost money.
(22:24):
I want to do something that at least feels good.
If I lose money, okay, but I want to feel good about
And I started investing in early stage micro cap technology companies.
And I had two criteria.
Are they solving a problem that is huge and if upon success would improve the humanexperience?
And number two, do they have a team that is crackerjack like really amazing people?
(22:50):
And so I, you know, I made a couple of mistakes early on and I know why and I learned fromit.
But I actually then started investing in several companies that I'm still a part of.
But my nature is to meet people.
So when I would invest in a company before I'd invest and once I've invested, I keptcalling the chairman and the CEO and the CTO and the CFO and developing rapport.
(23:16):
And this went on across a couple of companies in particular.
And at one point, the chairman said I was on a call.
lovely guy, very sweet.
And he said, I want to have a call next week with you and our CEO.
And I knew the CEO, Josh, a lovely guy.
And I said, sure.
I didn't ask him why.
It's like, why did they want to talk?
(23:36):
I don't know.
So I get on the call the next week.
And at the end of an hour long conversation, the chairman says, listen, we have a questionfor you.
Would you consider joining our advisory board?
And I was like, uh totally taken by surprise.
And I said,
I can tell you right now the answer is a hell yes.
(23:57):
But you have to answer me one question.
Why?
Why?
Why are you asking me to be on your advisory board?
It's a very, very deep technology company.
Anyway, long story short, they answered the question honestly, and actually reallybeautifully in a way that I could relate to.
What does that say?
(24:17):
Yes, I'm in.
And I've been working with them now for
a number of years.
We've had a great success together in terms of value exchange and ideas and introductions,all sorts of things.
And the company is doing extraordinarily well.
And I think it's on a trajectory to only do better.
(24:40):
uh So that sort of changed my brain.
I went, oh, I don't have to have all these best sellers.
And I don't have to have a fancy website.
I hate that.
I don't want to be the product.
I want them to be the product.
want our intelligence to be the medium, right?
Our creative intelligence.
Long story short, then I started word of mouth got out and I became a little, a little bitconfident that this was my new path.
(25:06):
story short, I now advise a handful of tech company.
Actually, there's one company in the UK that I advise that's not technology per se, butthe other few are, and they are.
extraordinary and doing really important work.
So to be a part of the story, a little cell in the body of this big story is way moreexciting than anything I could have dreamt for myself.
(25:32):
uh And it's a vision that I didn't have, but it's unfolded.
And the more it unfolds, the more it continues to grow.
And part of that is not just these technology companies, but I
over the recent years developed a really extraordinary friendship with, well, a deepfriendship with an extraordinary human who happens to be a woman in the headquarters of
(26:00):
NASA.
And she's like the administrator, deputy administrator of the space mission, I'm sorry,the space technology mission directorate.
So basically she's in.
She oversees technology for the whole of the agency.
It's pretty amazing, right?
And she's brilliant in more ways than I can share, but we put on, you know, we'redeveloping some mischievous, beautiful things on our own.
(26:30):
And we also are now putting on, you know, about six weeks or five weeks, I forget.
We have our upcoming, what we call the NextSplore 2040 Summit.
which we put together and is, you know, will be an ongoing annual event.
And we're holding it in Washington, D.C.
at the world headquarters of Amazon, AWS, uh in wonderful people involved, great speakers,great sponsors, great, know, like.
(27:01):
Fantastic.
Anyway, so it again, let me let me take over a little bit here.
Yeah, I you know, I this the summary.
or the thing which I understand from this conversation and knowing you, I think your goalhas shifted from whatever you were doing to make an impact on humanity.
(27:25):
Yes.
That's your current, the way I read it, this is what you're trying to do and I canguarantee you, you're going to be extremely successful.
There is no question about it.
It's not making money.
It is to serve the humanity in a way which you have really, you know, together based onyour, you know, experience right from the Berkeley days, from the Gheros, to make a
(27:56):
definite change to the whole world and humanity.
That's the mission you're on.
And the reason I'm saying is I can share some of the thoughts.
See, I feel...
someone similar in that fashion, but of course not like you, but I can see what your dreamor the pressure of participating in that.
(28:19):
I just want to make that statement.
Thank you Anand.
I am living my dream for sure.
You know, I feel very grateful.
And the beautiful thing now is it has, you know, I think a lot of us are brought up in aculture where we're programmed to uh not really reach out to strangers, certainly not very
(28:46):
exalted human beings, not ask for help, not, you know, and that's, mean, I'm so curiousthat I sort of.
was I lost my shyness a long time ago.
But now doing these things, the level of conversation, the people that I'm meeting on aweekly basis, and there's no barrier, right?
(29:10):
Now it's like I have a purpose and it's mission driven.
It's not about me.
So I'm not in the equation anymore.
Now it's about something so important that I will call anybody and the more successful andthe more experienced and the more
You know and now what I find is that they're all in general these people at this level oflife are Are the most generous and the most?
(29:39):
Big you know heart-driven mission driven people so it's like a snowball and My dream justgets bigger uh
Go ahead, I want to connect the thread real quick and hold that thought though, becauseokay, go ahead.
know you both very, very well.
And, you know, talking about, I forget the paraphrase, Gary, but collecting people.
(30:03):
Mohan has been in all books that he's written.
talks about his team, his team, his team and delegation and empowering people.
And you guys have a very strong common thread of really and I hate the word empowerment,but it's gonna I'm gonna use it for now.
Maybe you have a better way to say it of really focusing on
the community and team that you guys have built over the years, no matter what it is.
(30:26):
So I'd like you both to comment on that, and then Mohan, please ask your question.
Yeah, it's actually not a question, but I can share his passion for the next floor, orespecially with NASA, because I worked for NASA.
I have created certain very, very innovative technology.
(30:48):
Yeah, it's called GPS.
get it.
GPS.
I was doing the space navigation kind of technology.
also that trend, like for example, in those days, I worked on a mission called CSAT.
It's a synthetic aperture radar, which of course JPL was kind of a leader.
(31:11):
And now this is almost 50 years later, JPL and NASA and
Indian Space Research Organization.
Together they are doing a very similar thing ah using the synthetic aperture radar.
So we were doing SAR primarily look at DOSHE.
(31:31):
And what happened was, I can't describe the whole thing, we started seeing things sovaluable the Department of Defense came and classified the project.
So nobody can talk about it.
That did happen.
But now
uh the same technology but of course improved technology.
(31:53):
uh We are doing it to look at not ocean alone, it is primarily the earth's surface, theland surface.
And that would be an opportunity to see the mineral deposits, petroleum deposits, all kindof, it is going to do wonders.
I anyway, NASA and ISRO, are working together.
(32:15):
We just launched it.
I believe in the last few days or something.
mean, anything NASA is involved, I keep track and I watch it and I want it to be kind ofthere.
So what you're doing with this next floor, I'm excited to see how it evolves and becomesbetter.
Yeah.
And it's interesting, Mohan, because we're at an interesting intersection historically.
(32:41):
One of the things that my friend and I'll say partner
Crystal did with she has put her signature on that agency called NASA in a big way.
And one of the ways in which she's done that is by insisting and finally being heard andagreed with over time by the leadership that if they don't become porous borders, if they
(33:03):
don't make as part of their DNA, put out a welcome mat, put a front door on the agency andbecome friendly to private interests of public private partnerships.
whether it's a little entrepreneur or a big corporation, whether it's in the United Statesor somewhere else, the brilliance that's needed to accomplish the mission is so vast.
(33:24):
They published 187 technology shortfalls, all of which need to be solved quickly or wewill never land on the lunar surface in the way that we envision.
so what's really interesting right now is how the energy is uh
If you're paying attention, it's moving from the public to the private sector.
(33:48):
Because, you know, we all know that the budgets have been slashed across many agencies inour federal government.
NASA is no exception.
And the implications are extreme.
you know, companies, the axioms and the SpaceX's and on and on are going to have to cometogether and stitch together and become pivotal players.
(34:11):
uh
And there is a certain, I mean, think space exploration as a whole is, people havedifferent opinions about it.
I think it's brilliant.
And why is it brilliant?
It's brilliant for a host of reasons, not the least of which is any technology we developthat would take us, help take us to uh a sustainable community on another planetary body
(34:36):
is gonna first benefit us here on Earth.
uh
whether it's medicine, whether it's food, whether it's water, whatever it is.
number one, it's it, you know, we reap the benefits here first and then we deploy it.
And the other is, you know, there is some urgency around, know, we're not the onlysuperpower anymore and we're not the only ones who are launching and we're not the only
(34:59):
ones who want to be on the moon and ultimately beyond.
uh And if we are not there, you know, whoever gets there first.
has a significant advantage.
And whether they're ethic, whether they're the lens through what is their intention.
And if their intention is friendly and open and fair, great.
(35:22):
But if it's not, that's a problem.
uh So uh what we don't want is the dystopian version is someone else gets there, they'renot friendly, and they put.
they kill your baby GPS, uh they shut down power along the eastern seaboard, they dowhatever they do, because you have the ability to do that once you're uh situated on the
(35:51):
moon.
And you look at earth, you look at satellites, you look at all the vulnerabilities, right?
So it's really important for us as a culture, I think it's in the DNA of human beings,whether it's oceans or space or earth to
constantly explore and push the boundaries, literally.
uh And now we have both scientific and medical and political reasons to want to pushfurther.
(36:18):
So it's an exciting time and we need all the brilliance that we can harvest.
And also it's very innovative.
There is an opportunity that is still, even though we think we have solved many problems,but it's solving one problem creates 10 other
more interesting problems.
So I think it's the right thing.
(36:40):
I mean, of course, I come from the space background in that sense.
So I really see that's where the humanity should go.
And it is happening.
More people are engaged.
I got a couple of nerdy questions for you.
Please.
You know, I'm a closet nerd.
(37:01):
I subscribed to a lot of the space channels and whatnot, but I keep thinking about thevastness and the time and the resources and all that.
What's, in both your opinions, what's the biggest hurdle we have to overcome to occupyMars?
Or the moon, either one.
mean, occupied by somebody who actually lives there for an extended period of time.
(37:23):
Let me take a crack at it before you.
I'm sure Gary has his vision.
The problem with going to Mars, first it takes some time to reach there.
Yeah, right.
That itself, that means the human sustainability is going to be an issue.
(37:43):
Or you have to look at it very carefully.
then you have to have the similar living conditions, opportunity which we are used to onEarth has to be placed in the Mars environment for a much, much longer period because
those who go, I mean, may not be able to come back that easily.
(38:08):
the total problem, I would even recommend, of course we have to go to Mars.
We will go but we may want some intermediate Stations space stations or Lagrangian pointsor some other place so that we have like If you go to New York by train you stop in
(38:30):
Chicago or some other so you need to have some real much global Thinking before you shouldreally get there.
I mean you can try somebody to go and see like our
moon landing and come back.
But if you want to make a settlement, a long-term settlement that needs much, moreplanning.
(38:52):
Water, oxygen, like that.
Exactly.
But you can generally produce those.
So go ahead, Gary.
Look, I think technology is such an exciting...
It's accelerated our opportunity, our thinking.
(39:13):
It's infused now in every facet of our life.
And I think it's a good thing.
We're able to solve problems, bigger problems, more quickly.
But we still have a lot to learn.
So there's a lot of issues.
As Mohan said, know, it's right now it's a nine-month journey to Mars without anysunlight.
What does that do to a human body?
(39:35):
And yet, my confidence in our ability to solve those problems is actually very high.
So I think we're going to get there in terms of food, in terms of bone density, notavoiding atrophy.
And how do we entertain them?
How do we keep their minds sharp?
There's all these issues.
But I think that we have our hands.
(39:55):
We don't have the solutions, per se.
But we know what the questions are, and we're working on.
It doesn't often get time in the press.
The press likes negative news.
But the truth is, there's so much
good happening on this planet right now, not just in the United States, but across theboard.
So it's a very exciting time.
(40:16):
think, you know, one of the things that I hope for in answer to your question, Doug, is,you know, I think right now our culture and certain others, if you look at gaming, if you
look at movies, if you look at all our, you know, what we're taking in, we have...
(40:38):
A majority of that is a rather dystopian view of the future.
And for me, I think a lot of it starts with who are we and what do we believe and what dowe imagine for ourselves individually and collectively as a species.
And I fear that right now, we need to move the needle and let people participate inimagining and creating.
(41:06):
through gaming and otherwise, which is really a critical technology, a solution engine, tosee a more positive series of outcomes and a better future.
Because I think where we focus our attention, what we believe, is the reality that we'regonna live into.
Energetically, I just know that's the case.
(41:26):
So I think part of it is education and sharing with people.
uh
you know, making them part of the story, getting them engaged, getting them to believe andparticipate, more kids coming into STEM education, becoming engineers, becoming, you know,
solutionists, and being excited about where we can go and that we have the capability.
(41:53):
We have to believe in our capability to solve climate.
We have to be able to believe in our ability to have a sustainable human community on themoon and everything in between.
And so I mean, you can say something related to that.
Of course, going to Mars uh is that we know there is Mars.
Whereas uh if you go back in history, when Columbus came to America, he was not coming toAmerica.
(42:20):
He was trying to go to India.
But some order that he found, then of course, America became the best country in theworld.
Now, the reason we go to Mars.
is also to have an opportunity to extend the life of human species beyond earth, meaningearth could be destroyed or there is a possibility.
(42:42):
But the human beings have to be in some other place as well.
But it is not immediate, but that thought process is always there.
So we should pursue that path and see how adventure.
So that will happen and it is happening.
know, Mars is our logical choice.
(43:03):
I mean, we have to use the moon as a way station, a learning experience.
But Mars was very the only atmosphere of a planet in our in our system that was very muchlike Earth's.
It had green, it had plants, it had water and some cataclysmic event turned it into thered planet.
(43:23):
But we know from the lava tubes where you find frozen water.
that there were oceans, there were bodies of water, et cetera.
And we can hopefully learn to reclaim that.
And that's part of the challenge, of course.
But it's a fascinating one.
yeah, mean, yeah, listen, we've got a long way to go, but I think that we're...
(43:49):
you know, I hope I'm very hopeful that we will learn a lot in the process of inhabitingand having a human community on the moon.
We will learn a lot about what's possible in in space for human beings.
Right.
So we metaphor we need more movies like The Martian versus Independence Day.
(44:10):
We need more positive ones.
I just it's so funny you mentioned that I just just for a shot in the arm.
I rewatched The Martian last week.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now, of course, in terms of Mars, I mean, again, how's the magnetic poles over there?
Are they able to block out the solar wind?
not, anything you build is going to wiped out with a big blast.
(44:35):
I think they're studying about those things, even in Earth, you know, the pole isreversing and all kinds of things happening on Earth, So the Mars, I...
To the extent I know, it has some very similar features like Earth, but I don't believe wehave anything which would destroy the conventional knowledge what we know in the industry.
(45:06):
I think it is applicable and we will learn more as we go.
That's another reason.
love you guys.
Long-term thinking, I love that.
um
You know, Gary, we talked earlier about your event coming up.
I'm talk about that for a few minutes and wrap this up in the next, we got five or 10minutes left.
Tell us more about NextLore.
And I saw the one thing on the challenge with the prize and stuff.
(45:26):
And it seems like it's mainly for like, really, really technical, smart people.
I tell us who it's for.
It's for everything from investors to students, from entrepreneurs to scientists.
We will have a very high end audience, but they come from all walks of life.
because it's really not about, uh this is not for rocket scientists.
(45:49):
This is for human beings who happen to have a deep interest in uh technology, ininvesting, in supporting things, in learning as students, et cetera, et cetera.
So it's gonna be a very diverse audience.
uh But it's, uh and it is, we hope the premier, you know.
uh becoming increasingly the premier event charting the future of extended human lunar andMartian habitation.
(46:13):
But it's called Nextplor 2040, Nextplor being the nexus of exploration.
And our tag is Discover, Create, Accelerate.
if you go to, you can learn more if you go to a website, it's X foundry,X-F-O-U-N-D-R-Y.org, oward slash Nextplor, N-E-X.
(46:38):
P-L-O-R-E.
And so it's happening September 9, 10, and 11.
It's going to be in Arlington, Virginia.
It's basically DC in the Amazon's beautiful AWS headquarters.
And we have an extraordinary lineup of keynotes and panelists and speakers and workshops.
(47:05):
We also are launching
this year and from this point forward.
It also includes what we call horizon challenges.
We've put out problem statements to a number of campuses around the United States for themto form a campus to form a team and uh put basically a startup team together to brainstorm
(47:26):
and put a proposal forward.
And if accepted, they're going to go into a deep 18 month development phase.
And hopefully they'll come up with
with some brilliant, brilliant uh achievable and aspirational opportunity that allows usto invest between two and $4 million into them and get them to market.
(47:47):
So these challenges align with the NASA technology shortfalls that have been published.
We've been trying solve them one group at a time, year by year.
But the event itself is going to be very, very exciting.
And we welcome anyone to check it out.
And come, come join us.
You're going to meet a
fascinating group of people.
(48:08):
You're going to learn a lot of stuff you wouldn't imagine.
It's going to be very exciting in terms of the things that we're going to exhibit anddemonstrate.
Or it might be visuals that you've never seen before.
Let me ask you.
I've looked into it.
I'm extremely interested.
What role you, Gary, are playing there so that we can work together?
(48:32):
I'm thinking of...
uh
participating?
mean, I haven't decided, but because we have a company in the AI healthcare area.
So we want to kind of see whether we can uh kind of make a page or participate in somefashion.
what specific your role and maybe I can go through that.
(48:54):
All right.
Well, Mohan, I'd love to have a separate conversation with you.
But my role is this is something that I uh
started with Chris working with Crystal on we launched our inaugural event back inFebruary of 2024 And we moved to September.
It's a better time of year, but my role is everything It's like, you know, the first onewe did ourselves.
(49:15):
It was very hands-on So we were doing recruiting identifying and recruiting all thespeakers We were doing all the sponsorships the venue the marketing, you know, it was like
everything we now we have a team more of a team
So I'm still involved with sponsorships and uh approval of speakers and panelists and thisand that.
(49:37):
I will be there, obviously.
I will be uh moderating uh a really exciting panel uh that I'm not going to give away toomuch right now, but a panel that I'm super excited about, uh which really, in part, it has
to do with what I was talking about before, like,
(49:59):
creating a more positive ideation that is pragmatic and anchored and also uh showing howgaming is really quite a powerful tool for solving problems and why it's relevant.
We're going to have some incredible minds on this panel and we have some great visuals andwe're going to lay out some really interesting information.
(50:26):
So I'm gonna be moderating and obviously sort of hosting um to some extent, I'll be therefor the guests and the speakers and whatnot.
uh So I would love to have a separate conversation with Imohan whenever he's convenient.
There is a session called Autonomous Health Diagnosis and Monitoring and that's where wehave a tool, AI tool, so I want to...
(50:54):
see whether we could be a participant in some fashion to present and get the exposure aswell as it's a working tool.
This company is looking at going public.
Each year we pick different areas of focus.
This year one of our areas of focus is high tech health.
(51:18):
So absolutely very relevant.
Happy to have that conversation.
Okay, I really love a separate conversation and then see how we can join that group.
Yes.
So if you're an investor, if you have hope for the planet, if you got an idea, if you'rejust curious, if you like space cool stuff and want to meet cool people like these guys,
(51:41):
man, you want to get to Nextblr2040 and the links for everything Gary mentions below hereso you can check that out.
So we have a few minutes left.
I want to hear some parting words of wisdom, some positive words of hope from both of you.
Go ahead.
You first and Gary can wrap it up.
I differed in Mohan.
I am a half-full guy.
Half-full meaning I'm very optimistic.
(52:03):
Very optimistic.
I I know people uh close to me half empty.
see the same half glass.
They always think what could go wrong.
But mine is really how you can...
The real reason is as an entrepreneur you have to have a positive attitude to besuccessful because then you will go after and say
(52:27):
that with the mantra, I can do it.
I can make it happen.
So that's the type of things I have.
And I believe in, especially in the coming.
I've written a book of which, of course, you helped me.
It's called Life with AI.
Maybe it's one of the areas.
(52:49):
Life with AI, which basically talks about how the human life is changing and advancing.
with the technology and which has been ever since the Industrial Revolution.
It's nothing new.
We are going in that path, but now we are growing, in my opinion, exponentially.
(53:09):
It's growing faster because there are things we do.
We are still in the AI space, embryonic.
We are in the early space.
So it is going to do wonders and many things we don't know yet.
So I just wanted to say, just limiting, that we are on a
even though there are many challenges, but the quality of life and the ability to dothings so good so the human race is progressing in the right direction.
(53:39):
So that's a very positive note.
I let Gary finish that.
Mr.
Goldstein.
Thank you, Mohan.
You know, to me, it really comes down to one thing.
Every single person on this planet is special and unique.
and valuable and necessary.
(54:00):
You're here for a reason.
And so a couple of thoughts.
One is um believe in yourself first.
Learn to love yourself.
Learn to believe in yourself.
Whatever that and it often takes many of us years to figure this out.
But it's pivotal.
(54:21):
And part of that is also how do you express yourself in the larger human community?
And, you know, really doing a deep dive and not following common wisdom or feeling peerpressure or, you know, worrying about, you know, I mean, I've always.
been fortunate, but I never made money my driver.
I did what I thought was mine to do.
(54:43):
I got what I was excited about.
And I would encourage people to dare to take that chance on yourself and figure out whatis it that really lights you up?
What do you think?
What is it that actually excites you?
Like if you could do that for a living?
my God.
And that you're actually good at and then chase that.
And you know, that was a gift that my father gave me.
(55:06):
He believed in me.
And when I quit being an attorney, he actually was happy.
He was way ahead of his generation.
But you know, like, learn to love yourself, believe in yourself and find the thing that isreally truly expressive of who you are at the deepest level and and go after it.
Go after your dream.
(55:27):
And and and don't.
Don't worry so much about all the negativity in the news and this and that and the otherthing.
There's so much good in life, so much good that's happening on this planet right now.
So the other piece is court human beings, chase human beings who are people you admire,who are uplifting, who are positive, who will support you.
(55:52):
you know, that's everything.
It's like the half the reason I'm able to do what I've done is because of the peoplearound me, not because I'm that special.
but because I associated and uplifted as a result of those friendships.
So I say, you know, make really good friends with great people.
It will pay dividends and believe in yourself, love yourself and try to find the thingthat really merits you spending your precious life doing that.
(56:24):
quote of Bugs Life, more movie quotes.
He's quite the motivational speaker.
Brilliant, brilliant, Gary.
I just love you guys, both of you guys so much.
It's very, very enlightening and empowering and inspirational for sure.
So thank you so much, both of you coming on the show today, the visionary show with MohanAnanda.
And we look forward to seeing you guys again very soon, probably in Virginia.
(56:48):
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Mohan.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
you
Welcome to the visionary show.
I've got a couple of guests on today and one of them is my cohost, but I'm going toinclude him as kind of a special guest as well.
It's not often you have a guest on or two people on the show that represented over atleast over 10, 15 billion, that's $15 billion of value generated in their careers.
(00:32):
Maybe more than that.
We can get the actual details, but I know for a fact that both of you guys have generatedbillions of dollars based on what you've been involved with as leaders.
in your respective industries.
So without further ado, let's get to it.
My name is Doug Crowe.
I'm the founder of Authir Brand and we have Mr.
Mohan Ananda, my co-host.
Mohan, how do you introduce yourself?
(00:53):
My name is Mohan Ananda and I've been working with the duck for years and I know our guestis here to me and take it away, duck.
All right, very good.
You used to say I'm an ordinary entrepreneur.
I used to smack you calling yourself an ordinary entrepreneur.
You're nothing but ordinary.
(01:14):
Yeah, our guest today um is a gentleman I've known for quite a while, Mr.
Gary Goldstein.
And when I mentioned the billions of dollars in revenue generated, that's because he usedto be in the entertainment industry and is responsible pretty much for the whole rom-com
genre is all I'm concerned.
The executive producer Pretty Woman, as well as Under Siege and his favorite one I think,The Mothman Prophecies.
(01:35):
So we'll talk a little bit
your background, Gary.
But first, I want to know about the man.
And then we'll get into the mission.
So we'll start with that.
How are you?
I am so well.
It's almost unlawful.
And it but but how can I have anything other than a brilliant day?
I'm with Mohan Ananda and Doug Crowe.
my gosh.
(01:55):
Nice gushing, gushing.
So we're going to get into the main thing we're doing nowadays, but I always like to talkabout a person's background and history.
And I know you're a recovering attorney and whatnot, but tell us how you got involved withthe entertainment business first, and then we'll lead into the current stuff you're doing
with technology.
The short version, hopefully short, when I was a kid, I was painfully shy.
(02:20):
I was a daydreamer.
And I fell in love with story.
I fell in love with books at a very young age.
And I just grew up living in this world of everything was story to me.
at that time, know, uh watched a lot of television as a kid, of course, and a lot of thoseshows were about attorneys and Perry Mason and all this.
(02:43):
And I just had this, I'm a romantic and uh a very naive romantic.
And I looked at all of these shows and thought,
wow, championing the underdog and having to tell great stories in a courtroom, God forbidsomething bad happens, right?
So I grew up with these crazy ideas about what it would be to be an attorney.
(03:05):
uh I went to college, I uh had great timing in life.
I grew up uh in San Francisco.
I born in New York, up in San Francisco, went to UC Berkeley undergrad at a time when itwas all the tumult, all the...
unseating of a president, the ending of a war, very dramatic time.
(03:26):
And back then we didn't have the word entrepreneur.
We, we, know, you, you either went into academia or you took a corporate job.
That was kind of the choice and neither appealed to me.
um And anyway, long story short, I discovered in San Francisco, part of San Francisco thatthis beautiful beleaguered community, we call it a ghetto.
(03:46):
It's the black community, wonderful, wonderful community.
And they had a foundation that was trying to be the solution on all fronts for thiscommunity.
So they had social workers and drug counseling and skills training and criminal defense inlieu of the public defender.
They defended the adult indigence of this community.
And I thought this, this is what I was dreaming about growing up.
(04:11):
I just didn't know it.
So I went out there, long hair hippie, and
I was terrified because I'd never been to the ghetto.
There were projects and it was like there were three white people and I just grabbed thefirst person I saw and I said, I need to work here.
And they looked at me.
You're afraid you'd an iron side versus Perry Mason, right?
a wheelchair.
(04:33):
They just thought I was crazy.
And they said, wait a are you an attorney?
I said, no, are you in law school?
No, not yet.
Well, we have no money and go away.
And I just wouldn't leave.
I just kept showing up.
And long story short, eventually they acquiesced and said, OK, I said, I want
just, I don't need money.
I just want to do one year internship for free.
I'll sweep the floors.
(04:53):
I don't care.
I just want to hang out here.
And that's what happened.
And they, they actually taught me uh more than you learn in law school in the course of ayear.
So I became very involved and I loved it and I was very inspired.
So I became, I went to law school to become a criminal defense lawyer because that's, thatwas what was in front of me.
(05:15):
And long story short, it was at
One of the most brilliant, have you ever had a phase of your life, an experience that waslike outstanding, brilliant, it helped form who you are as a human being, but you also
knew it was a terrible career choice for you.
And that's how I felt.
It was one of the most inspirational things.
(05:37):
I learned a ton, I made great friendships.
uh It aligned with my values, all that stuff, but it was a very dark, harsh world, and I'ma romantic, it wasn't gonna
So I quit and decided I still like storytelling is the thing.
And I just didn't know what that looked like.
(05:57):
And then suddenly I went, wait a minute, wait a minute.
There's this thing on a big screen called film that, I didn't grow up thinking I'd be afilmmaker, but I love film like everybody else.
And so I thought, you know what?
I'm gonna pack whatever fits into my Carmen Gia, my Volkswagen Carmen Gia.
I'm gonna leave everything I know.
(06:17):
kind of wanted to go on a new adventure and be anonymous, get out of San Francisco.
And so I drove down the coast and I came to LA.
I didn't know anybody.
And I certainly didn't know a thing about the business, but that's, you know, it was justa decision, a gut decision.
Like, again, very naive.
You don't jettison everything in your life thinking I'm going to go on this adventure andit'll work out somehow.
(06:41):
But I did.
And when I got to LA, uh
I joined an outdoor health club.
was the only thing where I could meet people.
Like who are the people that are gonna be there in the middle of the day on a sunny day ona Wednesday?
Creative people, right?
Freelancers.
So I joined and I went every day and I played hours of tennis and hours of paddle tennisand the pool and everybody became my five minute mentor.
(07:07):
And over the year I made 150, 200 or more friends.
And that's how I, one of them said, hey, if you know nothing about the business, justbecome a manager.
You don't need an agent, you know, a license like an agent.
Right.
Cause I didn't want to work in a company.
I wanted my own thing.
I wanted to do my own thing.
And so I became, I became a literary, I founded a literary management company representingunknown writers and directors.
(07:33):
And that was ungraceful the first several years, but eventually it became a really greatbusiness and I got good at it.
And I broke a lot of people into the business.
Long story short, the writers went on strike some years later.
shut business down and I said to one of my guys clients, you want to direct, you've neverdirected, dust off one of your scripts, I'm gonna produce it, I'll raise $17, we'll go
(07:58):
make a movie.
And we did, I raised $200,000, we made a feature, we were dumb and dumber.
But we got the- And that feature title was?
Okay, you know, I know what it is.
I'm gonna tell you don't say no cannibal women in the avocado jungle of death.
(08:19):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I got the bug.
I fell in love and decided yeah, I don't want to do that.
Now I'm just gonna be a film producer.
That's it.
I love it.
Of course, we didn't end with cannibal women the avocado jungle of death.
He did move on to do pretty woman.
I'm sure she's often prophecies.
Yeah.
So you know, made a little dent there.
(08:42):
I was a very, yeah, I loved the process.
didn't like, honestly, I never really liked the business or the culture of Hollywood.
I just loved the creative process.
I loved working with writers and directors and actors and talent.
know, it was like that lit me up.
And frankly, I don't, you just never know if a particular story is going to hit a chordwith an audience.
(09:08):
You use your best judgment.
check with your gut and your heart and your mind and but but it's a gamble right.
But I did love story I read thousands of scripts literally I I think I read 1213,000scripts over over the course of my time there.
And I had a pretty good gut.
(09:29):
But I got lucky let's face it, know, I I made a couple of independent here's where I gotlucky I met a couple of low budget no budget indie films that no one has ever seen my
family included.
And then I got this one script from one of my clients.
I asked him to, he was a new client.
His college stuff was too collegey quirky.
(09:51):
said, you're very talented, but you need to write a new script and it needs to be aromance.
And I don't care if it's comedy or drama.
And I said that because he was 23.
He was 23.
He had just ended his first great love relationship of five years.
had his girlfriend had left him.
And I thought.
And he wrote great women characters very complex beautiful women characters And I thoughtwho do you ask to write a romance if not a broken-hearted guy who's a brilliant writer?
(10:20):
So he handed me a script that was a drama not a comedy called 3000 which I Won't tell youthe story.
It'll take three hours But that's the script that eventually I set up at Disney and thatwas transformed into a comedy and it's called pretty woman it became
Yeah, their highest grossing live action picture in their history and still to this day,it's, you know, 30.
(10:45):
It's it's a dream for any producer to have one, even one title in your filmography thatgives that has a life that's 35 years and still as strong, if not stronger than it ever
was, giving joy all around the globe to generations of viewers.
So, yeah, I would like to get it.
(11:08):
I just want to make a statement.
The Pretty Woman is one of my, I wouldn't say one, one.
It is my most favorite movie.
whenever I tell people I know who started that movie, I become more important to them.
So this is not an exaggeration.
(11:30):
It's an honest statement.
I just want to.
I don't know, Mohan.
I think I'm go with Cannibal Women and the Apokado Jungle of Death is one of my favorites.
Actually, Undersiege has a really good story behind it.
If we have time for that short story on that, that'd be really interesting.
Talk about the impact of a story where I think you said a nuclear safety officer saw themovie, Gary.
(11:52):
Yeah, I was I was giving a talk to an audience in somewhere in Orange County.
I forget what it was, but.
afterward uh in the uh lobby and there were a lot of people milling around and people werecoming up to me and this young fella came up to me with his young bride um and he said I
want to thank you for that film um and he said I want to share a story if I may and I saidof course by all means and it turns out and I'm gonna get this wrong but he was he was in
(12:24):
the service um and I believe it was the Navy
And it was the Navy.
And but I believe it was a battleship.
In any event, whatever the I was never in the military, you might you might have guessed.
I don't know the the vernacular vocabulary, but he was on a battleship.
He was in charge of security because this battleship was armed with nuclear weapons.
(12:47):
So this was a big deal.
Well, he the story was that uh not long before the movie came out, the uh
starting at the Oval Office and the Department of Defense, they decided to strip all thebudgets for security on board these battleships.
They'd never had a problem.
(13:08):
They were being cost-conscious, et cetera, et He said, and it was horrifying, it wasterrifying that we actually now, I was in charge of it, I had no budget and there was no
real security.
And your film comes out and you shook up the military apparatus.
They watched this film and because the,
Yes, it was a fantastic plot, but a lot of the environments and the language that we usedwas actually authentic.
(13:35):
We had a lot of consultants, know, admirals and all sorts of people.
And they said it just hit a chord where they said, oh my God, this could happen.
It's a film, it's preposterous, but it could happen.
And they reinstated all of the budgets and re-engaged all of the security on thebattleships.
It was like, you know,
(13:57):
And at first, I, you know, like you couldn't make that up, right?
Yeah.
Mohan, you got some, you guys experienced in the military, not directly, but indirectly, Iknow.
So I don't know if you have any comments on that.
Yeah.
My military experience is really uh two oh areas.
(14:19):
One, I worked with the North American Defense Command in Shan Mountain in ColoradoSprings.
And some of the things or many of the things I did, I can't talk about it.
Let me start from there.
However, this is where, right now, actually it has expanded into what they call the GoldenDome.
(14:43):
The idea is to protect the US from any intrusion or any missiles coming to our area.
So most of the work, this is many, many years ago, the NORAD that's known, it still iscontinuous.
uh It's based on land-based, air-based, and sea-based defense systems.
(15:10):
Whereas today, of course, they continue with those three-based, but it's mostly going tobe space-based.
They started as strategic defense initiative.
Now we are going into the Golden Dome, which is very similar to Iron Dome, which actuallyprotected or protect Israel, but it's all land-based.
(15:33):
But we are now going into a complete space-based protection, and it is going to beamazing, meaning nothing can penetrate to the soul.
That's the type of area I have worked with.
I was involved in addition to that.
As you know that I'm one of the primary architects of a global positioning system and GPSis a weapon system and that is how we get, we can go and drop a bomb through a chimney or
(16:08):
any minute thing you can think of.
In fact, we can even drop on an individual walking on the road.
mean, as clear as, so that is the path of GPS, but anyway.
That's why we have under siege influencing DOD spending and Star Wars affecting whatyou're doing.
That's great.
(16:31):
Gary, you guys.
I was just going to say, know, and both of those, Mohan, I have a feeling where thisconversation is going are going to both be very relevant to where we end up.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And now, now, in addition to that, now we are kind of
on a journey with AI.
(16:52):
And I think today's discussion will be a lot about AI, but AI is going to take dominancein every aspect of life, and in particular in the defense system, they're making, because
we don't want a lot of people involved, we want machine to react instantly.
(17:13):
Yeah, I saw that movie too.
All right, well speaking of technology, that's where we're going to go with these.
You guys have both had...
both attorneys, both brilliant people.
And so Gary, this is more about you, man.
You were in entertainment and you mentioned something which I sensed the first time I wentout there.
I didn't last two weeks in LA about the business environment, not being the same as thecreative environment.
(17:36):
So at some point you said, you know what, fun, thank you guys, I'm gonna do somethingdifferent.
And that's I think when I met you, we started talking about different things in the world.
So tell us how you got from entertainment to where you are today and then you can tell usa little bit about where you are.
uh Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting journey because I can't take credit for being veryclever.
(17:58):
uh But when I realized that I really didn't want to spend the rest of my years uh makingmovies in Hollywood, it was I had an enormously successful, wonderful run.
It set me up.
You know, when you make films.
It's a really interesting thing.
It's a business that has such global allure.
(18:21):
And when you're lucky enough to make one or more films that have, and know, Under Siegehas a huge global audience, Pretty Woman is ridiculous, and so on and so forth.
So a lot of doors swung open.
And I was able to travel the world and, you know, meet, and actually I started apartnership on a business years ago.
(18:41):
with the gentleman who is now the president of South Africa.
He had been in Robben Island in prison with Mandela for those 27 years.
you know, like that wasn't because my name's Gary Goldstein, a kid from Long Island.
No, it was because of the film.
And that, so I've been very blessed and I've had access to, and I've always had this idea.
(19:07):
uh And this is because my dad, frankly, uh that whenever my work, my work was one thing,but my secret mission since I was fairly young was what I called harvesting genius.
was to go throughout my life, the path of my life, identifying brilliant people, people Iadmire, people that inspire me, people that are making a dent in the world and doing
(19:31):
really interesting things, regardless of geography or industry sector at all.
So my job was to befriend these people.
And as a result, if I read a book that inspired me, would be a stalker.
I would find the author, and I'd track him down, and I'd call him.
And we'd become in time friends.
I did this with speakers, with authors, with strangers.
(19:54):
And so my greatest riches are the friendships that I've developed.
And they're not a few dozen.
It's hundreds and hundreds of really extraordinary people.
And I was trying to think, like, if I were to step outside of Hollywood, because we don'tsee ourselves well, we have a different story about ourself than we do.
(20:15):
You know, I see the value and opportunity in every person in business.
But about myself, it's like, eh, I'm not so good.
You know, I'm not really employable.
So what would it look like if I could do the things?
I love storytelling.
really, I will finally say this many years, I'm actually really good at it.
By the same token, I'm really good at strategy.
(20:36):
I see and connect in invisible dives really well.
The less I know about a person's business, the more effective I am.
And I started to think, what would that look like?
And I thought, maybe I could be a consultant.
And then I thought, no, I can't do that.
Because consultants, they have five best sellers on the New York Times list.
They have websites that go on for days.
(20:58):
And there's 17 ways to connect with them.
And I can't do all that.
That's not me.
You know, so at one point I said, okay, maybe I have to stop looking at the world as amarketplace and where do I fit in?
And maybe I should focus on me, my humanity, me as a human being.
And what is it that I want to wake up and feel?
(21:20):
What do I want to experience?
What are the feelings that I'm looking for?
And when I did that, it was very clear.
I wanted two things.
I far greater significance.
I wanted to make choices and spend my time in the service of things that felt like legacyabout which I would be very proud at the end of my life.
And that would also, I'm very, very curious.
(21:42):
I've always been very curious and that would constantly feed me a new meal where I'd learnevery day and meet exalted people every day.
And um so significance was the first.
And the second word that was part of my mantra was freedom.
I want the freedom to travel.
literally and metaphorically.
(22:03):
And long story short, you know, I'm not, I'm not, you know, that wealthy, but I've doneokay.
And I started looking and saying, you know, I don't like the way most people invest theirmoney.
I don't want to do that.
I tried it.
I was terrible at it.
I lost money.
(22:24):
I want to do something that at least feels good.
If I lose money, okay, but I want to feel good about
And I started investing in early stage micro cap technology companies.
And I had two criteria.
Are they solving a problem that is huge and if upon success would improve the humanexperience?
And number two, do they have a team that is crackerjack like really amazing people?
(22:50):
And so I, you know, I made a couple of mistakes early on and I know why and I learned fromit.
But I actually then started investing in several companies that I'm still a part of.
But my nature is to meet people.
So when I would invest in a company before I'd invest and once I've invested, I keptcalling the chairman and the CEO and the CTO and the CFO and developing rapport.
(23:16):
And this went on across a couple of companies in particular.
And at one point, the chairman said I was on a call.
lovely guy, very sweet.
And he said, I want to have a call next week with you and our CEO.
And I knew the CEO, Josh, a lovely guy.
And I said, sure.
I didn't ask him why.
It's like, why did they want to talk?
(23:36):
I don't know.
So I get on the call the next week.
And at the end of an hour long conversation, the chairman says, listen, we have a questionfor you.
Would you consider joining our advisory board?
And I was like, uh totally taken by surprise.
And I said,
I can tell you right now the answer is a hell yes.
(23:57):
But you have to answer me one question.
Why?
Why?
Why are you asking me to be on your advisory board?
It's a very, very deep technology company.
Anyway, long story short, they answered the question honestly, and actually reallybeautifully in a way that I could relate to.
What does that say?
(24:17):
Yes, I'm in.
And I've been working with them now for
a number of years.
We've had a great success together in terms of value exchange and ideas and introductions,all sorts of things.
And the company is doing extraordinarily well.
And I think it's on a trajectory to only do better.
(24:40):
uh So that sort of changed my brain.
I went, oh, I don't have to have all these best sellers.
And I don't have to have a fancy website.
I hate that.
I don't want to be the product.
I want them to be the product.
want our intelligence to be the medium, right?
Our creative intelligence.
Long story short, then I started word of mouth got out and I became a little, a little bitconfident that this was my new path.
(25:06):
story short, I now advise a handful of tech company.
Actually, there's one company in the UK that I advise that's not technology per se, butthe other few are, and they are.
extraordinary and doing really important work.
So to be a part of the story, a little cell in the body of this big story is way moreexciting than anything I could have dreamt for myself.
(25:32):
uh And it's a vision that I didn't have, but it's unfolded.
And the more it unfolds, the more it continues to grow.
And part of that is not just these technology companies, but I
over the recent years developed a really extraordinary friendship with, well, a deepfriendship with an extraordinary human who happens to be a woman in the headquarters of
(26:00):
NASA.
And she's like the administrator, deputy administrator of the space mission, I'm sorry,the space technology mission directorate.
So basically she's in.
She oversees technology for the whole of the agency.
It's pretty amazing, right?
And she's brilliant in more ways than I can share, but we put on, you know, we'redeveloping some mischievous, beautiful things on our own.
(26:30):
And we also are now putting on, you know, about six weeks or five weeks, I forget.
We have our upcoming, what we call the NextSplore 2040 Summit.
which we put together and is, you know, will be an ongoing annual event.
And we're holding it in Washington, D.C.
at the world headquarters of Amazon, AWS, uh in wonderful people involved, great speakers,great sponsors, great, know, like.
(27:01):
Fantastic.
Anyway, so it again, let me let me take over a little bit here.
Yeah, I you know, I this the summary.
or the thing which I understand from this conversation and knowing you, I think your goalhas shifted from whatever you were doing to make an impact on humanity.
(27:25):
Yes.
That's your current, the way I read it, this is what you're trying to do and I canguarantee you, you're going to be extremely successful.
There is no question about it.
It's not making money.
It is to serve the humanity in a way which you have really, you know, together based onyour, you know, experience right from the Berkeley days, from the Gheros, to make a
(27:56):
definite change to the whole world and humanity.
That's the mission you're on.
And the reason I'm saying is I can share some of the thoughts.
See, I feel...
someone similar in that fashion, but of course not like you, but I can see what your dreamor the pressure of participating in that.
(28:19):
I just want to make that statement.
Thank you Anand.
I am living my dream for sure.
You know, I feel very grateful.
And the beautiful thing now is it has, you know, I think a lot of us are brought up in aculture where we're programmed to uh not really reach out to strangers, certainly not very
(28:46):
exalted human beings, not ask for help, not, you know, and that's, mean, I'm so curiousthat I sort of.
was I lost my shyness a long time ago.
But now doing these things, the level of conversation, the people that I'm meeting on aweekly basis, and there's no barrier, right?
(29:10):
Now it's like I have a purpose and it's mission driven.
It's not about me.
So I'm not in the equation anymore.
Now it's about something so important that I will call anybody and the more successful andthe more experienced and the more
You know and now what I find is that they're all in general these people at this level oflife are Are the most generous and the most?
(29:39):
Big you know heart-driven mission driven people so it's like a snowball and My dream justgets bigger uh
Go ahead, I want to connect the thread real quick and hold that thought though, becauseokay, go ahead.
know you both very, very well.
And, you know, talking about, I forget the paraphrase, Gary, but collecting people.
(30:03):
Mohan has been in all books that he's written.
talks about his team, his team, his team and delegation and empowering people.
And you guys have a very strong common thread of really and I hate the word empowerment,but it's gonna I'm gonna use it for now.
Maybe you have a better way to say it of really focusing on
the community and team that you guys have built over the years, no matter what it is.
(30:26):
So I'd like you both to comment on that, and then Mohan, please ask your question.
Yeah, it's actually not a question, but I can share his passion for the next floor, orespecially with NASA, because I worked for NASA.
I have created certain very, very innovative technology.
(30:48):
Yeah, it's called GPS.
get it.
GPS.
I was doing the space navigation kind of technology.
also that trend, like for example, in those days, I worked on a mission called CSAT.
It's a synthetic aperture radar, which of course JPL was kind of a leader.
(31:11):
And now this is almost 50 years later, JPL and NASA and
Indian Space Research Organization.
Together they are doing a very similar thing ah using the synthetic aperture radar.
So we were doing SAR primarily look at DOSHE.
(31:31):
And what happened was, I can't describe the whole thing, we started seeing things sovaluable the Department of Defense came and classified the project.
So nobody can talk about it.
That did happen.
But now
uh the same technology but of course improved technology.
(31:53):
uh We are doing it to look at not ocean alone, it is primarily the earth's surface, theland surface.
And that would be an opportunity to see the mineral deposits, petroleum deposits, all kindof, it is going to do wonders.
I anyway, NASA and ISRO, are working together.
(32:15):
We just launched it.
I believe in the last few days or something.
mean, anything NASA is involved, I keep track and I watch it and I want it to be kind ofthere.
So what you're doing with this next floor, I'm excited to see how it evolves and becomesbetter.
Yeah.
And it's interesting, Mohan, because we're at an interesting intersection historically.
(32:41):
One of the things that my friend and I'll say partner
Crystal did with she has put her signature on that agency called NASA in a big way.
And one of the ways in which she's done that is by insisting and finally being heard andagreed with over time by the leadership that if they don't become porous borders, if they
(33:03):
don't make as part of their DNA, put out a welcome mat, put a front door on the agency andbecome friendly to private interests of public private partnerships.
whether it's a little entrepreneur or a big corporation, whether it's in the United Statesor somewhere else, the brilliance that's needed to accomplish the mission is so vast.
(33:24):
They published 187 technology shortfalls, all of which need to be solved quickly or wewill never land on the lunar surface in the way that we envision.
so what's really interesting right now is how the energy is uh
If you're paying attention, it's moving from the public to the private sector.
(33:48):
Because, you know, we all know that the budgets have been slashed across many agencies inour federal government.
NASA is no exception.
And the implications are extreme.
you know, companies, the axioms and the SpaceX's and on and on are going to have to cometogether and stitch together and become pivotal players.
(34:11):
uh
And there is a certain, I mean, think space exploration as a whole is, people havedifferent opinions about it.
I think it's brilliant.
And why is it brilliant?
It's brilliant for a host of reasons, not the least of which is any technology we developthat would take us, help take us to uh a sustainable community on another planetary body
(34:36):
is gonna first benefit us here on Earth.
uh
whether it's medicine, whether it's food, whether it's water, whatever it is.
number one, it's it, you know, we reap the benefits here first and then we deploy it.
And the other is, you know, there is some urgency around, know, we're not the onlysuperpower anymore and we're not the only ones who are launching and we're not the only
(34:59):
ones who want to be on the moon and ultimately beyond.
uh And if we are not there, you know, whoever gets there first.
has a significant advantage.
And whether they're ethic, whether they're the lens through what is their intention.
And if their intention is friendly and open and fair, great.
(35:22):
But if it's not, that's a problem.
uh So uh what we don't want is the dystopian version is someone else gets there, they'renot friendly, and they put.
they kill your baby GPS, uh they shut down power along the eastern seaboard, they dowhatever they do, because you have the ability to do that once you're uh situated on the
(35:51):
moon.
And you look at earth, you look at satellites, you look at all the vulnerabilities, right?
So it's really important for us as a culture, I think it's in the DNA of human beings,whether it's oceans or space or earth to
constantly explore and push the boundaries, literally.
uh And now we have both scientific and medical and political reasons to want to pushfurther.
(36:18):
So it's an exciting time and we need all the brilliance that we can harvest.
And also it's very innovative.
There is an opportunity that is still, even though we think we have solved many problems,but it's solving one problem creates 10 other
more interesting problems.
So I think it's the right thing.
(36:40):
I mean, of course, I come from the space background in that sense.
So I really see that's where the humanity should go.
And it is happening.
More people are engaged.
I got a couple of nerdy questions for you.
Please.
You know, I'm a closet nerd.
(37:01):
I subscribed to a lot of the space channels and whatnot, but I keep thinking about thevastness and the time and the resources and all that.
What's, in both your opinions, what's the biggest hurdle we have to overcome to occupyMars?
Or the moon, either one.
mean, occupied by somebody who actually lives there for an extended period of time.
(37:23):
Let me take a crack at it before you.
I'm sure Gary has his vision.
The problem with going to Mars, first it takes some time to reach there.
Yeah, right.
That itself, that means the human sustainability is going to be an issue.
(37:43):
Or you have to look at it very carefully.
then you have to have the similar living conditions, opportunity which we are used to onEarth has to be placed in the Mars environment for a much, much longer period because
those who go, I mean, may not be able to come back that easily.
(38:08):
the total problem, I would even recommend, of course we have to go to Mars.
We will go but we may want some intermediate Stations space stations or Lagrangian pointsor some other place so that we have like If you go to New York by train you stop in
(38:30):
Chicago or some other so you need to have some real much global Thinking before you shouldreally get there.
I mean you can try somebody to go and see like our
moon landing and come back.
But if you want to make a settlement, a long-term settlement that needs much, moreplanning.
(38:52):
Water, oxygen, like that.
Exactly.
But you can generally produce those.
So go ahead, Gary.
Look, I think technology is such an exciting...
It's accelerated our opportunity, our thinking.
(39:13):
It's infused now in every facet of our life.
And I think it's a good thing.
We're able to solve problems, bigger problems, more quickly.
But we still have a lot to learn.
So there's a lot of issues.
As Mohan said, know, it's right now it's a nine-month journey to Mars without anysunlight.
What does that do to a human body?
(39:35):
And yet, my confidence in our ability to solve those problems is actually very high.
So I think we're going to get there in terms of food, in terms of bone density, notavoiding atrophy.
And how do we entertain them?
How do we keep their minds sharp?
There's all these issues.
But I think that we have our hands.
(39:55):
We don't have the solutions, per se.
But we know what the questions are, and we're working on.
It doesn't often get time in the press.
The press likes negative news.
But the truth is, there's so much
good happening on this planet right now, not just in the United States, but across theboard.
So it's a very exciting time.
(40:16):
think, you know, one of the things that I hope for in answer to your question, Doug, is,you know, I think right now our culture and certain others, if you look at gaming, if you
look at movies, if you look at all our, you know, what we're taking in, we have...
(40:38):
A majority of that is a rather dystopian view of the future.
And for me, I think a lot of it starts with who are we and what do we believe and what dowe imagine for ourselves individually and collectively as a species.
And I fear that right now, we need to move the needle and let people participate inimagining and creating.
(41:06):
through gaming and otherwise, which is really a critical technology, a solution engine, tosee a more positive series of outcomes and a better future.
Because I think where we focus our attention, what we believe, is the reality that we'regonna live into.
Energetically, I just know that's the case.
(41:26):
So I think part of it is education and sharing with people.
uh
you know, making them part of the story, getting them engaged, getting them to believe andparticipate, more kids coming into STEM education, becoming engineers, becoming, you know,
solutionists, and being excited about where we can go and that we have the capability.
(41:53):
We have to believe in our capability to solve climate.
We have to be able to believe in our ability to have a sustainable human community on themoon and everything in between.
And so I mean, you can say something related to that.
Of course, going to Mars uh is that we know there is Mars.
Whereas uh if you go back in history, when Columbus came to America, he was not coming toAmerica.
(42:20):
He was trying to go to India.
But some order that he found, then of course, America became the best country in theworld.
Now, the reason we go to Mars.
is also to have an opportunity to extend the life of human species beyond earth, meaningearth could be destroyed or there is a possibility.
(42:42):
But the human beings have to be in some other place as well.
But it is not immediate, but that thought process is always there.
So we should pursue that path and see how adventure.
So that will happen and it is happening.
know, Mars is our logical choice.
(43:03):
I mean, we have to use the moon as a way station, a learning experience.
But Mars was very the only atmosphere of a planet in our in our system that was very muchlike Earth's.
It had green, it had plants, it had water and some cataclysmic event turned it into thered planet.
(43:23):
But we know from the lava tubes where you find frozen water.
that there were oceans, there were bodies of water, et cetera.
And we can hopefully learn to reclaim that.
And that's part of the challenge, of course.
But it's a fascinating one.
yeah, mean, yeah, listen, we've got a long way to go, but I think that we're...
(43:49):
you know, I hope I'm very hopeful that we will learn a lot in the process of inhabitingand having a human community on the moon.
We will learn a lot about what's possible in in space for human beings.
Right.
So we metaphor we need more movies like The Martian versus Independence Day.
(44:10):
We need more positive ones.
I just it's so funny you mentioned that I just just for a shot in the arm.
I rewatched The Martian last week.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now, of course, in terms of Mars, I mean, again, how's the magnetic poles over there?
Are they able to block out the solar wind?
not, anything you build is going to wiped out with a big blast.
(44:35):
I think they're studying about those things, even in Earth, you know, the pole isreversing and all kinds of things happening on Earth, So the Mars, I...
To the extent I know, it has some very similar features like Earth, but I don't believe wehave anything which would destroy the conventional knowledge what we know in the industry.
(45:06):
I think it is applicable and we will learn more as we go.
That's another reason.
love you guys.
Long-term thinking, I love that.
um
You know, Gary, we talked earlier about your event coming up.
I'm talk about that for a few minutes and wrap this up in the next, we got five or 10minutes left.
Tell us more about NextLore.
And I saw the one thing on the challenge with the prize and stuff.
(45:26):
And it seems like it's mainly for like, really, really technical, smart people.
I tell us who it's for.
It's for everything from investors to students, from entrepreneurs to scientists.
We will have a very high end audience, but they come from all walks of life.
because it's really not about, uh this is not for rocket scientists.
(45:49):
This is for human beings who happen to have a deep interest in uh technology, ininvesting, in supporting things, in learning as students, et cetera, et cetera.
So it's gonna be a very diverse audience.
uh But it's, uh and it is, we hope the premier, you know.
uh becoming increasingly the premier event charting the future of extended human lunar andMartian habitation.
(46:13):
But it's called Nextplor 2040, Nextplor being the nexus of exploration.
And our tag is Discover, Create, Accelerate.
if you go to, you can learn more if you go to a website, it's X foundry,X-F-O-U-N-D-R-Y.org, oward slash Nextplor, N-E-X.
(46:38):
P-L-O-R-E.
And so it's happening September 9, 10, and 11.
It's going to be in Arlington, Virginia.
It's basically DC in the Amazon's beautiful AWS headquarters.
And we have an extraordinary lineup of keynotes and panelists and speakers and workshops.
(47:05):
We also are launching
this year and from this point forward.
It also includes what we call horizon challenges.
We've put out problem statements to a number of campuses around the United States for themto form a campus to form a team and uh put basically a startup team together to brainstorm
(47:26):
and put a proposal forward.
And if accepted, they're going to go into a deep 18 month development phase.
And hopefully they'll come up with
with some brilliant, brilliant uh achievable and aspirational opportunity that allows usto invest between two and $4 million into them and get them to market.
(47:47):
So these challenges align with the NASA technology shortfalls that have been published.
We've been trying solve them one group at a time, year by year.
But the event itself is going to be very, very exciting.
And we welcome anyone to check it out.
And come, come join us.
You're going to meet a
fascinating group of people.
(48:08):
You're going to learn a lot of stuff you wouldn't imagine.
It's going to be very exciting in terms of the things that we're going to exhibit anddemonstrate.
Or it might be visuals that you've never seen before.
Let me ask you.
I've looked into it.
I'm extremely interested.
What role you, Gary, are playing there so that we can work together?
(48:32):
I'm thinking of...
uh
participating?
mean, I haven't decided, but because we have a company in the AI healthcare area.
So we want to kind of see whether we can uh kind of make a page or participate in somefashion.
what specific your role and maybe I can go through that.
(48:54):
All right.
Well, Mohan, I'd love to have a separate conversation with you.
But my role is this is something that I uh
started with Chris working with Crystal on we launched our inaugural event back inFebruary of 2024 And we moved to September.
It's a better time of year, but my role is everything It's like, you know, the first onewe did ourselves.
(49:15):
It was very hands-on So we were doing recruiting identifying and recruiting all thespeakers We were doing all the sponsorships the venue the marketing, you know, it was like
everything we now we have a team more of a team
So I'm still involved with sponsorships and uh approval of speakers and panelists and thisand that.
(49:37):
I will be there, obviously.
I will be uh moderating uh a really exciting panel uh that I'm not going to give away toomuch right now, but a panel that I'm super excited about, uh which really, in part, it has
to do with what I was talking about before, like,
(49:59):
creating a more positive ideation that is pragmatic and anchored and also uh showing howgaming is really quite a powerful tool for solving problems and why it's relevant.
We're going to have some incredible minds on this panel and we have some great visuals andwe're going to lay out some really interesting information.
(50:26):
So I'm gonna be moderating and obviously sort of hosting um to some extent, I'll be therefor the guests and the speakers and whatnot.
uh So I would love to have a separate conversation with Imohan whenever he's convenient.
There is a session called Autonomous Health Diagnosis and Monitoring and that's where wehave a tool, AI tool, so I want to...
(50:54):
see whether we could be a participant in some fashion to present and get the exposure aswell as it's a working tool.
This company is looking at going public.
Each year we pick different areas of focus.
This year one of our areas of focus is high tech health.
(51:18):
So absolutely very relevant.
Happy to have that conversation.
Okay, I really love a separate conversation and then see how we can join that group.
Yes.
So if you're an investor, if you have hope for the planet, if you got an idea, if you'rejust curious, if you like space cool stuff and want to meet cool people like these guys,
(51:41):
man, you want to get to Nextblr2040 and the links for everything Gary mentions below hereso you can check that out.
So we have a few minutes left.
I want to hear some parting words of wisdom, some positive words of hope from both of you.
Go ahead.
You first and Gary can wrap it up.
I differed in Mohan.
I am a half-full guy.
Half-full meaning I'm very optimistic.
(52:03):
Very optimistic.
I I know people uh close to me half empty.
see the same half glass.
They always think what could go wrong.
But mine is really how you can...
The real reason is as an entrepreneur you have to have a positive attitude to besuccessful because then you will go after and say
(52:27):
that with the mantra, I can do it.
I can make it happen.
So that's the type of things I have.
And I believe in, especially in the coming.
I've written a book of which, of course, you helped me.
It's called Life with AI.
Maybe it's one of the areas.
(52:49):
Life with AI, which basically talks about how the human life is changing and advancing.
with the technology and which has been ever since the Industrial Revolution.
It's nothing new.
We are going in that path, but now we are growing, in my opinion, exponentially.
(53:09):
It's growing faster because there are things we do.
We are still in the AI space, embryonic.
We are in the early space.
So it is going to do wonders and many things we don't know yet.
So I just wanted to say, just limiting, that we are on a
even though there are many challenges, but the quality of life and the ability to dothings so good so the human race is progressing in the right direction.
(53:39):
So that's a very positive note.
I let Gary finish that.
Mr.
Goldstein.
Thank you, Mohan.
You know, to me, it really comes down to one thing.
Every single person on this planet is special and unique.
and valuable and necessary.
(54:00):
You're here for a reason.
And so a couple of thoughts.
One is um believe in yourself first.
Learn to love yourself.
Learn to believe in yourself.
Whatever that and it often takes many of us years to figure this out.
But it's pivotal.
(54:21):
And part of that is also how do you express yourself in the larger human community?
And, you know, really doing a deep dive and not following common wisdom or feeling peerpressure or, you know, worrying about, you know, I mean, I've always.
been fortunate, but I never made money my driver.
I did what I thought was mine to do.
(54:43):
I got what I was excited about.
And I would encourage people to dare to take that chance on yourself and figure out whatis it that really lights you up?
What do you think?
What is it that actually excites you?
Like if you could do that for a living?
my God.
And that you're actually good at and then chase that.
And you know, that was a gift that my father gave me.
(55:06):
He believed in me.
And when I quit being an attorney, he actually was happy.
He was way ahead of his generation.
But you know, like, learn to love yourself, believe in yourself and find the thing that isreally truly expressive of who you are at the deepest level and and go after it.
Go after your dream.
(55:27):
And and and don't.
Don't worry so much about all the negativity in the news and this and that and the otherthing.
There's so much good in life, so much good that's happening on this planet right now.
So the other piece is court human beings, chase human beings who are people you admire,who are uplifting, who are positive, who will support you.
(55:52):
you know, that's everything.
It's like the half the reason I'm able to do what I've done is because of the peoplearound me, not because I'm that special.
but because I associated and uplifted as a result of those friendships.
So I say, you know, make really good friends with great people.
It will pay dividends and believe in yourself, love yourself and try to find the thingthat really merits you spending your precious life doing that.
(56:24):
quote of Bugs Life, more movie quotes.
He's quite the motivational speaker.
Brilliant, brilliant, Gary.
I just love you guys, both of you guys so much.
It's very, very enlightening and empowering and inspirational for sure.
So thank you so much, both of you coming on the show today, the visionary show with MohanAnanda.
And we look forward to seeing you guys again very soon, probably in Virginia.
(56:48):
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Mohan.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
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