PopTech Videos: PopCasts

The David Wax Museum fuses traditional Mexican folk with American roots and indie rock to create an utterly unique Mexo-Americana aesthetic.

MIT aeronautics professor and engineer Dava Newman is on a quest to create the best space suit in (intergalactic) town. She introduces some of her favorites designs, including a mobility-enhancing “Bio-Suit” created to protect astronauts from atmospheres and healthcare workers from germs.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, designer, artist and writer, explores the social, ethical and cultural implications of emerging technologies, especially synthetic biology. Her projects open up a creative space to imagine the potential scientific triumphs and disasters on the horizon.

Bhagwan Chowdhry started Financial Access at Birth (FAB), which aims to give every child born in the world an initial deposit of $100 in an online bank account so the next generation would have access to financial services in a few decades.

Arvind Subramanian explains that China’s ascendance is not approaching but already upon us. The country’s growing dominance will be more imminent, broader in scope and greater than previously imagined. He asks us to imagine a world with, not the G20, nor even the G2, but the sole G1: the reality is that China will rule the world. What does this mean for an increasingly vulnerable United States?

Alexis Lloyd and Michael Zimbalist, both from the New York Times R&D Lab, describe a new app for memory mapping the news, which they created for PopTech’s iPad app. Unlike the old model of top-down publishing, it allows consumers to combine news with their own personal memories. Users can see timelines in real and perceived time and view stories from the archives within the context of their own lives.

13-year old Aidan Dwyer designed a more efficient model for solar power by studying Fibonacci sequences. Today, his divides his time between junior high and collaborations with research organizations like the University of Madison’s Resilience Research Center.

Adriane Herman collects and displays found lists from all over the world. Heartbreaking, hilarious, mundane and, at times, shocking, these lists present a portrait of our attempts to contain our unruly humanity.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the White House’s new head of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, describes the rise of an “impact economy” – a new approach to social problem solving that involves impact investing and new hybrids of business and philanthropy to scale social progress.

After an acclaimed career as a documentary photographer, Bangladeshi Shahidul Alam dedicated his life to bringing photography to the people. He started a number of projects and initiatives—including Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography; Chobi Mela, the festival of photography in Asia; and Majority World, a global community interest initiative formed to provide a platform for indigenous photographers.

Deviant globalization is the global flow of “repugnant” goods and services like drugs, human trafficking and illegal wildlife. Such globalization leverages the mainstream infrastructure of the formal economy along with any downsizing in the role of the state. Nils Gilman asks what this means for countries in flux like Greece and Libya.

Bernard Lietaer argues that the monoculture of money is what creates economic instability, leading to liquidity crises. He calls for a greater diversity of alternative currencies, citing innovative and enormously successful initiatives like the Lithuanian Doraland Economy, the Torekes in Belgium and Switzerland’s famous alternative currency, the WIR.

Stephanie Coontz, an historian of the family, discusses how globalization has brought more women into the paid work force, giving them some ownership over their productive labor. Coontz urges us to redefine our notions of gender equality within this framework of labor, arguing that every worker has a right to a family life.

A leader in both science and social innovation, Dr. Hayat Sindi launched i2, the Institute for Imagination and Ingenuity at PopTech 2011. Dr. Sindi created the institute to bridge the gap between education and opportunity in the Middle East.

Naval Captain Wayne Porter and Col. Mark Mykleby of the Marines, military strategists working at the highest level of government, present highlights from their paper, “A National Strategic Narrative.” Their ideas—less military force, more social capital and more sustainable practices in energy and agriculture—have caused a recent stir in policy communities.