The Life Cycle
We have reached the third season of The Life Cycle, and this time around we want to bring the podcast right down to earth and get in deep with the things that matter to us all and our collective future. And what better way to do that than to have long, engaged conversations with some brilliant people? We talk food, we talk fertility, we talk about life online and we also visit the site of one of humanity’s most exciting endeavors: the mission to create nuclear fusion here on Earth, and harness the power of the Sun itself! Beginning with a chat with Klang CEO Mundi Vondi, this season promises to deepen our understanding of the life cycle, and just what it is we’re all doing here…. John Holten is a novelist and Klang Game’s Narrative Director. His novels include The Trains of Europe (2024), Oslo, Norway (2015) and The Readymades (2011). His writing has recently appeared in Welt am Sonntag, frieze, and The Stinging Fly. Eva Kelley is a journalist and writer. Her writing focuses on contemporary culture and has appeared in publications such as 032c, ZEITMagazin, Interview Magazine, Hearts, and on SSENSE.com among others.
Episodes
In our last episode from ITER, we round out season 3 with an exclusive interview with the head of ITER, Pietro Barabaschi! John and Eva got the chance to chat to Pietro about what it’s like running an international undertaking such as ITER, and how one needs to have a special relationship to time itself when it comes to the search for nuclear fusion. Plus we also hear some great insights on problem solving.
Born in 1965 in Milan, I...
Take a trip, and visit the incredible site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in Provence in the south of France. In this episode, Eva and John get a tour of the huge international effort to recreate what happens in our Sun: nuclear fusion. An immensely ambitious, multi-generational project, we promise this is quite a trip!
LINKS
Our ability to create energy is everything. When looking to the future, one thing is clear—humanity needs to find ways of harnessing power that is sustainable and good for the planet. One such source of energy is similar to what powers the sun (and therefore all of life as we know it): nuclear fusion. Not to be confused with nuclear fission, fusion is a potential energy source that would be clean, efficient, and limitless. In the f...
What is it actually like to undergo IVF? What does it even entail exactly? In this episode, we hear the incredible story and journey of Caroline, a mother whose experience offers insight and hope into the current and future landscape of reproductive technology (and culture). This subject concerns all of humanity, and it's important for all us to better understand this key part of the life cycle.
Caroline Wilkinson is an interi...
Sure longevity science is interesting, but what about the most pressing biological aging for half the world’s population? In this fascinating episode, Eva meets Jennifer Garrison who is at the forefront of trying to expand our understanding of the biology of aging and how it relates to reproductive health, specifcally with regard to female aging. It’s kind of shocking how far science and reproductive progress has gone in modern tim...
What would you do if you could live to be 100, 125 or even 150? Sure, we all may want to live forever, but what would that actually look like? How would we communicate to those around us? And not only that, is the recent longevity craze feasible or just people with too much time (and money) on their hands?
In this episode, Eva meets with Daniel Ives and has an incredibly exciting and interesting discussion about what he sees a...
We all know that the Internet is ruled by forces vying for our attention, and that often they gain our attention through highly emotive means, in ways that can seem imperceptible until they add up to massive political upheavals or indeed the very questioning of a shared sense of the Truth. What’s more, these very forces are often massive corporations that act beyond the will of any one individual, they are attuned to shareholder va...
We are all taking part in a massive experiment for which none of us have signed up: much of the food we consume daily comes in the form of ultra-processed food, something that has been described as ‘industrially produced edible substances’.
This diet is relatively new for humanity, and increasingly it’s clear that its impact on us is not always good. But what is UPF exactly, where did it originate and who is benefitting from this c...
We thought it was about time to take stock and catch our breath. The Life Cycle podcast is about the future of humanity, but over the last five years, the future has arrived in many ways.
In this episode, we take a look at how some of our guests and topics from seasons 1 and 2 have evolved and, in some cases, even become mainstream. Our guest is our Executive Producer, Mundi Vondi, whose brain we pick to uncover some of t...
We've come a long way and where do we go next? Who will we meet along the way?
The season fades out as we imagine ways to travel beyond our solar system...Thanks for the ride.
Irina Mullins is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Houston Community College. She is also the creator of the ‘Cosmic Hitchhikers Hypothesis’.
Many have heard about how the CIA introduced LSD to America, right? But did you know that they also wanted to introduce quantum entanglement and mind control? This episode revolves around an interview between John and David Kaiser, an American physicist and science historian. With David’s help, we take a look at how quantum evolved over the 20th century in both Europe and the US (and yes, even how the CIA and mindreading played a r...
What do you think of when you hear the word ‘quantum’? What even is quantum physics? What does it tell us about our world and universe, and what can it offer us in the future? In this episode, John and Eva meet up with executive producer Mundi in a London pub, and get sent on a special mission to discover as much as they can about the weird and wild world(s) of quantum science.
Professor James Binney is a British astrophysicist. H...
We continue our exploration of cloning with a closer look at how cloning and factory farming interact. Is animal cloning humane? Is it a technologically advanced key to the problems of factory farming? Or does it simply perpetuate the already existing issues?
Peter Stevenson is Chief Policy Advisor for Compassion in World Farming, as well as a qualified solicitor. He has worked in the animal welfare sector for over three decad...
Cloning has long been a pillar of sci-fi tales. But now it's here, as is CRISPR technology - gene editing. What does this all look like exactly and how does it work? And more importantly, are we already eating clones at the dinner table?
Professor Rudolf Jaenisch is a Professor of Biology at MIT and a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
Dorrit Moussaieff is an Israeli jewelry designer, editor, an...
Could AI make this entire episode? And replace Eva and John altogether? In this episode we look at the range of tools and solutions that AI offers right now, and look at where it might go in the future. It feels like every week there's a new development in AI: in this episode we hear from this rapidly changing frontline. Including from within Klang Games itself!
Constant Dullaart is a Dutch conceptual artist, me...
I am a paperclip. Just don’t call me Mr. Clippy. Pull up a chair and listen to this humorous tale that tells the history - and possible future - of the humble paperclip. In this little interlude we bring together some of the various themes of the season, from Operation Paperclip (episode 2) to the future of AI and AGI. Inventions and innovations, progress and science. Because remember, the trouble is we have no idea how to imagine ...
The future of booze. What does it taste like? Join us while we look at the role of the oldest of human concoctions: alcohol, and how it we may just be on the cusp of a radical revolution in all things inebriation.
Professor David Nutt is a neuropsychopharmacologist and the Co-Founder of GABA Labs. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Drug Science, a UK based independednt drug advisory committee.
LINKS:
Hear that? In the blink of an eye we could be not just contacted but overtaken by loud aliens. Are we , here on earth, quiet aliens in the universe? What is the difference exactly between loud and quiet aliens? And if we’re ever going to become loud aliens, traveling the cosmos, how would we manage such a civilisation-wide endeavor when we seem to only ever disagree, humanity's history being mainly one of war and division? Per...
It’s the age of Artemis! This means humanity is going back to the moon. And beyond! But where did this journey begin exactly? We’ve got a wild story that involves Nazis, bad novels, Walt Disney and the tyranny of the rocket equation. Listen as we explore the life and work of Wernher von Braun and the space race of the 1960s before looking to the present day Artemis programme and even the future of interstellar travel beyond the sol...
What connects the first ever recorded science fiction story with Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove? And who was the real live person that Strangelove was modelled on? We all know that to understand the future we have to understand the past, so that’s why we’re starting the season deep underground in the site of ancient Roman London. In this episode Eva and John get two different takes on apocalyptic story telling, figuring out if th...
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