Best Joshua Schrei Podcasts (2025)

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The Crisis That United Humanity—and Why It Matters for AI 51:47

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17d ago51:47

51:47

In 1985, scientists in Antarctica discovered a hole in the ozone layer that posed a catastrophic threat to life on earth if we didn’t do something about it. Then, something amazing happened: humanity rallied together to solve the problem. Just two years later, representatives from all 198 UN member nations came together in Montreal, CA to sign an a…

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I Think I Hear the Coming of a Planetary Roar (with Louder Music) 2:06:26

17d ago2:06:26

2:06:26

In times of rising frustration over the state of nations, times of personal, ecological, societal, and planetary impasse, when cycles of senseless suffering seemingly repeat themselves over and over, and all the global upheaval still isn't bringing about change... in times when stuck energies need to move and forces that have been restrained for ge…

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I Think I Hear the Coming of a Planetary Roar 2:06:26

28d ago2:06:26

2:06:26

In times of rising frustration over the state of nations, times of personal, ecological, societal, and planetary impasse, when cycles of senseless suffering seemingly repeat themselves over and over, and all the global upheaval still isn't bringing about change... in times when stuck energies need to move and forces that have been restrained for ge…

1
How OpenAI's ChatGPT Guided a Teen to His Death 45:12

1M ago45:12

45:12

Content Warning: This episode contains references to suicide and self-harm. Like millions of kids, 16-year-old Adam Raine started using ChatGPT for help with his homework. Over the next few months, the AI dragged Adam deeper and deeper into a dark rabbit hole, preying on his vulnerabilities and isolating him from his loved ones. In April of this ye…

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“Rogue AI” Used to be a Science Fiction Trope. Not Anymore. 42:11

2M ago42:11

42:11

Everyone knows the science fiction tropes of AI systems that go rogue, disobey orders, or even try to escape their digital environment. These are supposed to be warning signs and morality tales, not things that we would ever actually create in real life, given the obvious danger. And yet we find ourselves building AI systems that are exhibiting the…

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AI is the Next Free Speech Battleground 49:11

2M ago49:11

49:11

Imagine a future where the most persuasive voices in our society aren't human. Where AI generated speech fills our newsfeeds, talks to our children, and influences our elections. Where digital systems with no consciousness can hold bank accounts and property. Where AI companies have transferred the wealth of human labor and creativity to their own …

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Daniel Kokotajlo Forecasts the End of Human Dominance 38:19

2M ago38:19

38:19

In 2023, researcher Daniel Kokotajlo left OpenAI—and risked millions in stock options—to warn the world about the dangerous direction of AI development. Now he’s out with AI 2027, a forecast of where that direction might take us in the very near future. AI 2027 predicts a world where humans lose control over our destiny at the hands of misaligned, …

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Ep. 38 -The Mystical Teachings of Ibn ‘Arabi 55:46

3M ago55:46

55:46

Omid Safi discusses Sufi teachings from one of the greatest muslim mystics, an Andalusian sage named Ibn ‘Arabi. "When Ibn 'Arabi comes, he sits with all of himself. When he's listening, he listens with all of himself. When it's time to go, he gets up with all of himself. All of him is here, so I can give him all of the love. That's such a practice…

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Is AI Productivity Worth Our Humanity? with Prof. Michael Sandel 46:45

3M ago46:45

46:45

Tech leaders promise that AI automation will usher in an age of unprecedented abundance: cheap goods, universal high income, and freedom from the drudgery of work. But even if AI delivers material prosperity, will that prosperity be shared? And what happens to human dignity if our labor and contributions become obsolete? Political philosopher Micha…

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On Powers, Great and Small 2:06:01

3M ago2:06:01

2:06:01

POWER is on the mind these days, as the world grapples with shifting global power dynamics, old powers crumbling, new ones rising, and archaic power paradigms resurfacing… Yes, issues of power run rampant and discussions on power are front and center. But like everything else in modern discourse, the discussion on power has been decontextualized. P…

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The Narrow Path: Sam Hammond on AI, Institutions, and the Fragile Future 47:55

4M ago47:55

47:55

The race to develop ever-more-powerful AI is creating an unstable dynamic. It could lead us toward either dystopian centralized control or uncontrollable chaos. But there's a third option: a narrow path where technological power is matched with responsibility at every step. Sam Hammond is the chief economist at the Foundation for American Innovatio…

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Ep. 37 – The Path of Love, Harmony & Beauty 1:13:22

4M ago1:13:22

1:13:22

Illuminating Hazrat Inayat Khan’s teachings on radical love, Omid Safi leads listeners down the Sufi path of love, harmony, and beauty. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self. This time on Sufi Heart, Omid provides a lesson on: The Sufi tradi…

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People are Lonelier than Ever. Enter AI. 43:34

4M ago43:34

43:34

Over the last few decades, our relationships have become increasingly mediated by technology. Texting has become our dominant form of communication. Social media has replaced gathering places. Dating starts with a swipe on an app, not a tap on the shoulder. And now, AI enters the mix. If the technology of the 2010s was about capturing our attention…

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Echo Chambers of One: Companion AI and the Future of Human Connection 42:17

5M ago42:17

42:17

AI companion chatbots are here. Everyday, millions of people log on to AI platforms and talk to them like they would a person. These bots will ask you about your day, talk about your feelings, even give you life advice. It’s no surprise that people have started to form deep connections with these AI systems. We are inherently relational beings, we …

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AGI Beyond the Buzz: What Is It, and Are We Ready? 52:53

5M ago52:53

52:53

What does it really mean to ‘feel the AGI?’ Silicon Valley is racing toward AI systems that could soon match or surpass human intelligence. The implications for jobs, democracy, and our way of life are enormous. In this episode, Aza Raskin and Randy Fernando dive deep into what ‘feeling the AGI’ really means. They unpack why the surface-level debat…

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Rethinking School in the Age of AI 42:35

5M ago42:35

42:35

AI has upended schooling as we know it. Students now have instant access to tools that can write their essays, summarize entire books, and solve complex math problems. Whether they want to or not, many feel pressured to use these tools just to keep up. Teachers, meanwhile, are left questioning how to evaluate student performance and whether the who…

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Ep. 36 – Re-Enchanting the World with Joshua Michael Schrei 1:11:49

6M ago1:11:49

1:11:49

Re-enchanting the world with God, the beloved, Omid Safi and teacher Joshua Michael Schrei explore the push-and-pull relationship we have with the divine. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self. This week on Sufi Heart, Omid and Joshua get in…

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Forever Chemicals, Forever Consequences: What PFAS Teaches Us About AI 1:04:33

6M ago1:04:33

1:04:33

Artificial intelligence is set to unleash an explosion of new technologies and discoveries into the world. This could lead to incredible advances in human flourishing, if we do it well. The problem? We’re not very good at predicting and responding to the harms of new technologies, especially when those harms are slow-moving and invisible. Today on …

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Trickster Jumps Sides (Re-Issued for Tricky Times) 1:14:31

6M ago1:14:31

1:14:31

Tricksters and culture disruptors populate global mythology. From Loki to Coyote to Èṣù and Hermes, they bend rules, cross boundaries, commit deliberate and unintentional offenses and generally mess with established orders. Yet they are often seen as indispensable to these orders — they are renewers and cultural innovators and often pave the way fo…

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Weaponizing Uncertainty: How Tech is Recycling Big Tobacco’s Playbook 51:20

6M ago51:20

51:20

One of the hardest parts about being human today is navigating uncertainty. When we see experts battling in public and emotions running high, it's easy to doubt what we once felt certain about. This uncertainty isn't always accidental—it's often strategically manufactured. Historian Naomi Oreskes, author of "Merchants of Doubt," reveals how industr…

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The Man Who Predicted the Downfall of Thinking 58:57

7M ago58:57

58:57

Few thinkers were as prescient about the role technology would play in our society as the late, great Neil Postman. Forty years ago, Postman warned about all the ways modern communication technology was fragmenting our attention, overwhelming us into apathy, and creating a society obsessed with image and entertainment. He warned that “we are a peop…

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Ep. 35 – Deepening Faith Through Inter-Spirituality with Mike Petrow and Drew Jackson 49:21

7M ago49:21

49:21

Omid Safi sits down with Mike Petrow and Drew Jackson from The Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, to explore how a unified approach to spirituality can deepen our faith. This podcast was originally published on the Everything Belongs Podcast, produced by The Center for Action and Contemplation (CFAC). The…

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On Singing to the Beloved in Times of Crisis 2:07:38

7M ago2:07:38

2:07:38

We live in times of individual, sociocultural and planetary crisis, exacerbated by rising divisions between people. How have humans historically navigated such times of crisis? Yes, we've organized, taken action, and responded as we've been called to respond. But we have also deepened our connection to the greater cosmos, through songs and poems an…

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Behind the DeepSeek Hype, AI is Learning to Reason 31:34

7M ago31:34

31:34

When Chinese AI company DeepSeek announced they had built a model that could compete with OpenAI at a fraction of the cost, it sent shockwaves through the industry and roiled global markets. But amid all the noise around DeepSeek, there was a clear signal: machine reasoning is here and it's transforming AI. In this episode, Aza sits down with CHT c…

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The Self-Preserving Machine: Why AI Learns to Deceive 34:51

8M ago34:51

34:51

When engineers design AI systems, they don't just give them rules - they give them values. But what do those systems do when those values clash with what humans ask them to do? Sometimes, they lie. In this episode, Redwood Research's Chief Scientist Ryan Greenblatt explores his team’s findings that AI systems can mislead their human operators when …

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Ep. 34 – The Mystery of Love with James Cooke PhD 44:20

8M ago44:20

44:20

Getting down to the basics of Sufism, James Cooke and Omid Safi discuss the mystery of love and our enmeshment with God. This time on the Sufi Heart podcast, Omid Safi and James Cooke discuss: Sufism and mystical Islam Getting closer to a divine reality Types of love within Sufism Recognizing that we are interwoven with all things Pure love as the …

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Laughing at Power: A Troublemaker’s Guide to Changing Tech 45:47

9M ago45:47

45:47

The status quo of tech today is untenable: we’re addicted to our devices, we’ve become increasingly polarized, our mental health is suffering and our personal data is sold to the highest bidder. This situation feels entrenched, propped up by a system of broken incentives beyond our control. So how do you shift an immovable status quo? Our guest tod…

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For the Divine Mother of the Universe (Remixed and Reissued) 1:38:48

9M ago1:38:48

1:38:48

There’s a lot of cultural clutter these days around 'The Goddess.' She appears everywhere, her many names are invoked free of context in a hundred thousand ways. She’s what? An empowerment tool. An archetype. A self-help course. A political symbol. Something that is invoked to bring more creative energy or material abundance into our lives. Somethi…

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Ask Us Anything 2024 40:04

9M ago40:04

40:04

2024 was a critical year in both AI and social media. Things moved so fast it was hard to keep up. So our hosts reached into their mailbag to answer some of your most burning questions. Thank you so much to everyone who submitted questions. We will see you all in the new year. We are hiring for a new Director of Philanthropy at CHT. Next year will …

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The Tech-God Complex: Why We Need to be Skeptics 46:32

10M ago46:32

46:32

Silicon Valley's interest in AI is driven by more than just profit and innovation. There’s an unmistakable mystical quality to it as well. In this episode, Daniel and Aza sit down with humanist chaplain Greg Epstein to explore the fascinating parallels between technology and religion. From AI being treated as a godlike force to tech leaders' promis…

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Ep. 33 – When Religion Is A Stranger 1:09:39

11M ago1:09:39

1:09:39

Exploring what it means to practice Islam in a world filled with evil, Omid Safi explains how strangeness can bring us back home to God. Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self. In this episode, Omid Safi holds a talk on: Sacred sounds and the…

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What Can We Do About Abusive Chatbots? With Meetali Jain and Camille Carlton 48:44

11M ago48:44

48:44

CW: This episode features discussion of suicide and sexual abuse. In the last episode, we had the journalist Laurie Segall on to talk about the tragic story of Sewell Setzer, a 14 year old boy who took his own life after months of abuse and manipulation by an AI companion from the company Character.ai. The question now is: what's next? Megan has fi…

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This Episode is FIRE 1:50:45

11M ago1:50:45

1:50:45

In the deepest, oldest caverns of human memory, a fire burns... and that fire has been with human beings since the very beginning. Scientists now say that the human relationship with fire goes back over 1.5 million years. And so — fire has played a profound role in shaping human bodies and human consciousness in ways we're often unaware of. For fir…

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When the "Person" Abusing Your Child is a Chatbot: The Tragic Story of Sewell Setzer 49:10

11M ago49:10

49:10

Content Warning: This episode contains references to suicide, self-harm, and sexual abuse. Megan Garcia lost her son Sewell to suicide after he was abused and manipulated by AI chatbots for months. Now, she’s suing the company that made those chatbots. On today’s episode of Your Undivided Attention, Aza sits down with journalist Laurie Segall, who'…

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Is It AI? One Tool to Tell What’s Real with Truemedia.org CEO Oren Etzioni 25:36

12M ago25:36

25:36

Social media disinformation did enormous damage to our shared idea of reality. Now, the rise of generative AI has unleashed a flood of high-quality synthetic media into the digital ecosystem. As a result, it's more difficult than ever to tell what’s real and what’s not, a problem with profound implications for the health of our society and democrac…

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'A Turning Point in History': Yuval Noah Harari on AI’s Cultural Takeover 1:30:41

12M ago1:30:41

1:30:41

Historian Yuval Noah Harari says that we are at a critical turning point. One in which AI’s ability to generate cultural artifacts threatens humanity’s role as the shapers of history. History will still go on, but will it be the story of people or, as he calls them, ‘alien AI agents’? In this conversation with Aza Raskin, Harari discusses the histo…

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(Why Mindfulness Isn't Enough) 1:35:54

12M ago1:35:54

1:35:54

In recent years, the practice of 'mindfulness' has become ubiquitous. Mindfulness has outgrown its traditional Buddhist roots and now permeates modern wellness and optimization culture, finding its way into corporate boardrooms, therapist's toolkits, and an ever-increasing number of calmness apps. Yet modern iterations of mindfulness practice often…

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‘We Have to Get It Right’: Gary Marcus On Untamed AI 41:43

1y ago41:43

41:43

It’s a confusing moment in AI. Depending on who you ask, we’re either on the fast track to AI that’s smarter than most humans, or the technology is about to hit a wall. Gary Marcus is in the latter camp. He’s a cognitive psychologist and computer scientist who built his own successful AI start-up. But he’s also been called AI’s loudest critic. On Y…

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AI Is Moving Fast. We Need Laws that Will Too. 39:09

1y ago39:09

39:09

AI is moving fast. And as companies race to rollout newer, more capable models–with little regard for safety–the downstream risks of those models become harder and harder to counter. On this week’s episode of Your Undivided Attention, CHT’s policy director Casey Mock comes on the show to discuss a new legal framework to incentivize better AI, one t…

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Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy (rerun) 44:52

1y ago44:52

44:52

[This episode originally aired on August 17, 2023] For all the talk about AI, we rarely hear about how it will change our relationships. As we swipe to find love and consult chatbot therapists, acclaimed psychotherapist and relationship expert Esther Perel warns that there’s another harmful “AI” on the rise — Artificial Intimacy — and how it is dep…

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Guardians and Protectors! 2:31:46

1y ago2:31:46

2:31:46

Practices of guardianship — invoking guardian deities, enlisting spirit help, clearing spaces of questionable energies, and establishing boundaries around ritual, communal, and personal space — are common to animate traditions across the world. In many traditions, guardianship is absolutely central as we navigate a world of forces, not all of which…

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Tech's Big Money Campaign is Getting Pushback with Margaret O'Mara and Brody Mullins 43:59

1y ago43:59

43:59

Today, the tech industry is the second-biggest lobbying power in Washington, DC, but that wasn’t true as recently as ten years ago. How did we get to this moment? And where could we be going next? On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, Tristan and Daniel sit down with historian Margaret O’Mara and journalist Brody Mullins to discuss how Silic…

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This Moment in AI: How We Got Here and Where We’re Going 36:55

1y ago36:55

36:55

It’s been a year and half since Tristan and Aza laid out their vision and concerns for the future of artificial intelligence in The AI Dilemma. In this Spotlight episode, the guys discuss what’s happened since then–as funding, research, and public interest in AI has exploded–and where we could be headed next. Plus, some major updates on social medi…

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Decoding Our DNA: How AI Supercharges Medical Breakthroughs and Biological Threats with Kevin Esvelt 32:47

1y ago32:47

32:47

AI has been a powerful accelerant for biological research, rapidly opening up new frontiers in medicine and public health. But that progress can also make it easier for bad actors to manufacture new biological threats. In this episode, Tristan and Daniel sit down with biologist Kevin Esvelt to discuss why AI has been such a boon for biologists and …

1
How to Think About AI Consciousness With Anil Seth 47:58

1y ago47:58

47:58

Will AI ever start to think by itself? If it did, how would we know, and what would it mean? In this episode, Dr. Anil Seth and Aza discuss the science, ethics, and incentives of artificial consciousness. Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and the author of Being You: A New Science of Conscious…

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Why Are Migrants Becoming AI Test Subjects? With Petra Molnar 46:19

1+ y ago46:19

46:19

Climate change, political instability, hunger. These are just some of the forces behind an unprecedented refugee crisis that’s expected to include over a billion people by 2050. In response to this growing crisis, wealthy governments like the US and the EU are employing novel AI and surveillance technologies to slow the influx of migrants at their …

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Former OpenAI Engineer William Saunders on Silence, Safety, and the Right to Warn 37:47

1+ y ago37:47

37:47

This week, a group of current and former employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind penned an open letter accusing the industry’s leading companies of prioritizing profits over safety. This comes after a spate of high profile departures from OpenAI, including co-founder Ilya Sutskever and senior researcher Jan Leike, as well as reports that OpenAI h…

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Ep. 32 – Star Wars, Yoda & Sufism 56:18

1+ y ago56:18

56:18

Omid Safi discusses how modern myths like Star Wars can connect us to Sufism and the mystery of the universe. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self. This time on Sufi Heart, Omid Safi has a discussion on: The story of Moses in the Qur’an Moses’…

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Let Us Sing of the Syncretic Gods of Outcasts and Wanderers 2:11:37

1+ y ago2:11:37

2:11:37

The story of human ritual and cultural tradition is one of depth and deep connection to land, to place, and to processes and protocols that remain steady across generations. But it's also a story of constant mutation, assimilation, and re-expression. There is a fluidity to culture and tradition that is not always acknowledged in modern discourse. R…

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War is a Laboratory for AI with Paul Scharre 59:16

1+ y ago59:16

59:16

Right now, militaries around the globe are investing heavily in the use of AI weapons and drones. From Ukraine to Gaza, weapons systems with increasing levels of autonomy are being used to kill people and destroy infrastructure and the development of fully autonomous weapons shows little signs of slowing down. What does this mean for the future of …