Our first-ever podcast! We choose a name, talk about ideation, discuss time and space, take a crazy "commercial break," and think about using jell-o as ammunition.

Episode 1: Choosing a Name

Starting out
To sleep or not to sleep
Creativity
Thomas Gatchi
Jell-o Casino
How marshmallows are made

Episode 2: Starting Out

Time as context
Why are so many fairytales and movies about architecture?
Moral of the story: TV vs. Aesop’s fables vs. real life
Multiverse Theory and identity

Episode 5: Time and Context

Episode 6: Fireworks

Public speaking: body language and anxiety
Our experiences with music
Podcasting is like playing the organ
Ray tells his life story, which involves more crimes than you might imagine
Perspectives on three communities: Mormons, Catholics, and Cubans
Commercial break: Ray’s Fireworks Barn
Internet privacy

Episode 6: Fireworks

What is a robot?
Affective computing and personal robots (Cynthia Breazeal)
Automation
Beyond humanoid existence vs. uncanny valley
Feelings and emotional purposes (Robot & Frank, Her)
[SPOILER ALERT for Her 10:15–11:15]
What’s shklerm? 
Instinct vs. knowledge
The Twitter bot that became racist
The Chinese Room
Can a robot be a good consultant?
Akinator

Commercial: Escape the Rum

What’s the difference between a robot and a tool?
A refrigerating animal, the “wild freezer mammoth”
Can a robot make ethical decisions?
Robots and war
If a robot can fool you into thinking it feels, does it matter if it really feels?

Episode 9: Robots and Feelings

The biology of dreams
Theories for why we dream
The spiritual side of dreaming
Eat late at night, get more dreams
Lucid dreaming
Can we really ever control our dreams?
Can you dream about something you’ve never experienced?
Dream genealogy

Break: Dream Sequence

Emotions in reality vs. in dreams
Dreamtime (Aboriginal Australia)
Is there a parallel reality for every dream?
The physics of dreams
Is innovation new or an iterative recombination?
Are our dreams genetically carried through generations?

Ep. 14: What’s in a Dream?

Graduate education on the high seas
What’s it’s like overseeing all aspects of graduate education at a business school
Introverted and extroverted leadership
Giving and receiving feedback
How to respond to angry tweets

Commercial break: #questromlife

The future of education
BU Questrom’s Micromasters
The relational aspect of digital learning
MOOC certificate programs
Employers and competency-based digital learning
The role of industry in the future of education
The spectrum of hybrid learning: where does the residential university end and online learning begin?
BU’s unique MSMS program
Where does education end and work begin?
Hiring curious employees
Are you learning what you need today or what you’ll need tomorrow?
Innovation: don’t sit on your laurels
Skills that have been important over the decades
Do what you are passionate about

Ep. 16: The Future of Graduate Education (with guest Karen Phillips)

What is a board game?
The best strategy for Monopoly
German-style board games
Jumanji
Collaborative games
Group games
Kickstarter games
Commercial: The Positive Feedback Loop Game
Ancient games
AI/machine learning
3D games
Solveable vs. unsolveable games
Tactile games
Dominoes across cultures
Games we played in high school
Strategy vs. luck
One-player games
Why do we play games?
Is there a difference between work and play?

Ep. 28: Board Games and Beyond

What defines sleep?
What’s your common sleep position?
Why do we sleep?
Sleep deprivation
The relationship of anxiety and sleep
Sleep apnea and night terrors
Naps and siestas
Commercial: Hypernation Pills
Sleep paralysis and kanashibari
Cultural views of sleep
Debunking bunker: Does turkey make you sleepy?
Food and sleep: Rip Van Winkle, pizza dreams
How to fall asleep or sleep well
Relationships and sleep (fairytales vs. reality)
Vulnerability
Sleeping in public and social norms
“Sleep ecologies”
Sleep in different parts of the world

Ep. 35: What's the Deal with Sleep?

What is a “golden age”?
How do we know if we are in a golden age?
The golden ages of media: television, information, radio, video games… 
The golden age of hip hop
Are we able to identify a golden age while we’re in it?
Commercial: Customized Element Ages
The golden age of television
The metrics for identifying a golden age
Is ubiquity or acceleration a sign of a technology’s golden age?
Are golden ages in “the chasm”?

Ep. 36: Are We in a Golden Age?

Episode notes: 
What we did before we started the MBA program
The role of diversity and different types of diversity
Choosing extracurriculars
What is a case competition?
“Teaming” 
A clear vision vs. experimentation
Commercial: Bartholomew's School for Shady Business
How to network effectively
Skills for learning in the classroom

Ep. 37: Making the Most of Your MBA

Most destructive diseases in history
Contagion
Social contagion
The spread of ideas
Should you vaccinate your child?
Travel and disease
The Anthrax story
Disease in war
Suicide contagion
Commercial: Minority animal diseases
World of Warcraft and the CDC
Studying the spread of disease
Google Flu Trends
Dancing Plague of 1518
Fictitious monsters on the Internet
Leprosy colonies
Zombies
Network theory

Ep. 41: The Bigger Sick

We’ve discussed what Utopia might look like, but how do you get there? 
The future of Artificial Intelligence
Utopia or Eutopia?
Commercial
The future of work
Will technological trends take us to a dystopia?

Ep. 45: Utopia 2 - Is Artificial Intelligence a Road to Dystopia?

This episode is all about why and how to forgive, gaining back trust, making mistakes, the purpose of forgiveness, and more. Commercial: Confessional

Ep. 48: Forgiveness and Second Chances

What role will bitcoin play in the future of money?

Ep. 50: Bitcoin

From online forums of the 1980s to social media and beyond
Forms of spam
Why do people send spam?
Statistician Paul Graham
Robo calls
Spam vs. scams
CAN-SPAM Act
Commercial: Future Spam Protection
Spam in social media, online reviews, etc.
Fake followers and bot engagement
Is spam in the eye of the receiver?
What is spam, really?
How can you avoid being spammy?
Bonus: Stay crazy. Kaw kaw!

Ep. 55: Evolution of Spam

What are some popular conspiracy theories? Can a conspiracy theory be proven wrong? How have social media propagated conspiracy theories and what are the implications for free speech? Should communication platforms limit or block conspiracy theorists? What is your favorite conspiracy theory?

Ep. 57: The World of Conspiracy Theories

In this episode, we talk about attention. Have our attention spans gotten longer or shorter or stayed the same? What distracts us? How does the future of marketing impact our attention? Can AI lose attention, or is AI attention limited? What are the dimensions of attention? Is attention quality tied to the quality of our relationships? Cultural attention cues—what does attention look like? What metrics do marketers use to measure attention? What are the biometric markers for attention?

Ep. 59: Pay Attention to This!

In this episode, we talk about forms of meditation and prayer. We discuss topics such as Tai Chi, taking the time to think, running as meditation, Ray's temple visit, the role of silence, the rhythms of our bodies, chanting, ASMR, breathing, singing, flying, and slowing down. Also, joining us during the commercial for a "moment of ohm."

Ep. 60: Meditation and Prayer

What happens—or could happen—to our data after we die? Listen to Ray, Luis, and Steph talk about the possibilities.

Ep. 61: Digital Afterlife

In this episode we start with some stories about famous liars. Then we talk about types of lies. We discuss pathological liars, influence, the dating world, and employment. Commercial: Lie Detector Siren. Are we lying more? Social media, justification, blockchain’s impact, why and when we lie, social pressure.

Ep. 62: A Lie By Any Other Name

In this episode we define truth and we compare truth vs. reality. Then, we talk about the role of data in truth-seeking, and ask, will the truth set us free? Is ignorance bliss? What does it mean to be a truth seeker? The responsibility of truth, painful truths, perceptions of truth, truth vs. belief, truth in religion and science. What is the value of truth? Do you challenge truth? Uncomfortable truths. Avoiding the truth. Also, enjoy our commercial: the Truthify App.

Ep. 63: The Truth Will Set You Free

Ray and Steph recorded this week without Luis, but he’ll be back next week! In this episode about events, Ray and Steph discuss some memorable events and try to determine what defines an event. Does an event have to have a purpose, a focus? Hackathons, VR, Facebook Live. Event logs in computing. Event as initiation. Burning man. An unplanned event. In this episode, we wax philosophical to analyze how culture has shaped events (and how events have shaped culture). Commercial: Escape the Event.

Ep. 64: Beyond the Event

Is memory reliable? Has technology changed how we remember? What is the purpose of memory? How do you want to be remembered? All this and more in this episode about memory.

Ep. 65: This Episode is Unforgettable

Our guest was Lyn Ulbricht of the Free Ross movement. Ross Ulbricht was convicted of crimes associated with the Silk Road. Topics discussed in this episode: Ross’s experience in federal prison. Libertarian philosophy. Becoming a public figure; opportunities for public speaking. Learning about law, government, and rights. Seeking clemency. Experiences with the media. Having a family member in prison. The courtroom experience. Internet privacy. Is the law keeping up with technology? The War on Drugs. Is understanding of new technologies a generational capability—can someone of another generation fairly judge a crime done with a technology he/she doesn’t understand? Is Ross’s sentence fair, and what was the purpose of his sentence? Will other marketplaces like Silk Road exist after this? Is this a tipping point in history? The petition (started July 2018); 60k signatures in the first month, now nearing 141k. What should a nonviolent charge look like? The damage of nonviolent crimes. Vicarious liability. What is life like in federal prison? What does this mean for the future of nonviolent crimes, especially those that use new technologies like bitcoin and the dark web?

Ep. 66: Dark Web, Drugs, and Deterrence (with Lyn Ulbricht)

With guest Pascal Guyon! Pascal is a musician, an investor, and more. In this episode, he shares his insights about the music industry and where it’s headed.

Ep. 67: The Future of Music Monetization (with Pascal Guyon)

What is a consumer?
Producers vs. consumers in the ecological world
What is the difference between consumerism and materialism?
Are consumers more empowered than before?
Protecting consumers
Marketing and consumer behavior
The obsession with acquisition
Black Friday
Morality and Spending (e.g., “Fair Trade”)
Customizing consumerism
Clothing subscription services
Waste vs. Giving to the Needy
Minimalism

Ep. 68: Consumerism

In this episode, we talk about what quantum internet is and how it differs from the internet as we know it today. Photons, hacking, teleporting, qubits, quantum state, entanglement, and more. If you want to understand more about quantum internet, listen to this episode! Brought to you by Positive Feedback Loop. Commercial: Deep Space Realtors.

Ep. 69: Quantum Internet

In this episode, we begin by pondering past moments of jealousy and defining what jealousy really is. Then we dig into: jealousy vs. envy, comparing ourselves to others, and resources as limited vs. abundant. We also talk about how to deal with jealousy, including giving a word to the opposite of jealousy (inspired by Stella the dog!) and how we feel empathy. Commercial brought to you by Thieves. Bonus material: we try to invent a musical version of “Stay Crazy”.

Ep. 70: Jealousy

Why do we have leap day and when does the world actually skip leap day? What is your preferred calendar? Let’s ponder how and why we measure time in this episode all about everything you might not know about calendar systems.

Ep. 71: Skipping Leap Day

When you think of authority, what is the first color that you think of? What is authority? What are social contracts? Where does authority come from? What is the difference between power and authority? Commercial: Listen to more episodes! Looking through The Power of Political Authority, a book by Michael Huemer. Implicit and explicit consent. What if you started as a non-citizen? What is the role of religion in political authority? What is a nation state? Is the United States a nation state? We discuss a little about diversity and geography and how that affects power dynamics globally. Does power belong with the strongest person? How has warfare changed? If the president is removed from office and loses authority, will he lose power and influence?

Ep. 72: Authority, Power, and Social Contracts

In this episode, you’ll learn what midwifery is all about from a professional midwife who runs a birth center in Northern California. Our special guest Allison Blackham talks about the relationship midwifery has with the healthcare industry, the history of midwifery, the risks and rewards of childbirth, and even the odd requests she has gotten from expecting families. Learn about how COVID-19 has impacted her practice and what childbirth might look like in the future.

Ep. 73: We Called the Midwife (with Allison Blackham)

Positive Feedback Loop! We discuss tech, history, and culture and we have fun disagreeing with each other. ;-) Co-hosts: Luis, Ray, and Steph. Find us on Twitter: twitter.com/thepflpodcast!

"Lost episodes" (episodes we've removed):
Ep.38 (Watercooler chat - mind-reading robots eat your money)

Positive Feedback Loop

Popular tracks