Episodes 164
Avg. Duration 1h 12m
Activity Highly Active
Apple Rating 4.6 (102)
Since Jan 2019
Latest Episode Jun 2026

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Schedule
Every 2 Weeks
Format
Episodic
Consistency
100%
Hosting
feeds.transistor.fm

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About This Podcast

Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Join him for wide-ranging conversations with leading writers, scientists, technologists, academics, entrepreneurs, investors, and more.

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Recent Episodes

S2 Letter from Beijing 2: Tsinghua University – #113

Jun 04, 2026 1h 21m Transcript

This special episode was recorded at Tsinghua University in Beijing, generally regarded as the top university in China. Our guests are 3 Americans studying and working at Tsinghua: Gabriel…

S2 AI Billionaire on Existential Risk: Jaan Tallinn

May 21, 2026 1h 40m Transcript

Jaan Tallinn is a tech billionaire and founding engineer of Skype who leverages his wealth to mitigate existential risks from artificial general intelligence (AGI). He co-founded the Future of Life…

S2 Embryo Selection and Frontier Genomics with Dr. Alex Young – #111

May 07, 2026 1h 30m Transcript

Dr. Alex Young, a statistical geneticist and assistant professor in the Human Genetics department at UCLA, joins Steve Hsu to discuss the cutting edge of genomic prediction. They cover his research…

S2 Iran War is the First Missile War (crossover with Seeking Truth From Facts podcast) – #110

Apr 23, 2026 49m Transcript

Steve and Alf discuss the Iran War, emphasizing what itreveals about modern missile and anti-missile technology, drones, andthe implications for a US-China conflict in the Western…

S2 Dreamers and Doomers: Our AI future, with Richard Ngo – #109

Apr 09, 2026 1h 51m Transcript

Richard Ngo is an independent AI researcher and philosopher known forhis work on AGI safety and alignment. He recently resigned fromOpenAI, where he was a member of the Governance team focused…

S2 China, Acceleration, and Nick Land - with Matt Southey – #108

Mar 26, 2026 1h 3m Transcript

Matt Southey is an editor for an AI safety organization. He wrote his PhD dissertation on the philosophy of Nick Land. Matt's "A Brief History of Accelerationism" can be found here, and he recommends…

S2 Shenzhen is the Technology Capital of the World, with Taylor Ogan – #107

Mar 12, 2026 1h 11m Transcript

Recorded live in Shenzhen with Taylor Ogan, the founder and CEO ofSnowbull Capital, which invests in Chinese technology companies.Taylor on X:https://x.com/TaylorOganPrevious episodes with…

S2 AI DOOM: Jesse Hoogland of Timaeus

Feb 26, 2026 1h 42m Transcript

This is the second episode of our series based on interviews for the documentary film, Dreamers and Doomers, about the SF Bay Area in the last days before AGI. Steve interviews Jesse Hoogland,…

S2 Dreamers and Doomers: Jeremy Nixon at AGI House – #105

Feb 12, 2026 2h 14m Transcript

Jeremy Nixon is a prominent AI researcher, entrepreneur, and the co-founder of AGI House, a leading "hacker house" community for artificial intelligence developers in Silicon Valley. He studied…

S2 Industrial Maximalism and Its Discontents: Dan Wang on US-China Competition – # 104

Jan 29, 2026 1h 24m Transcript

Links:Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Futurehttps://www.amazon.com/Breakneck-Chinas-Quest-Engineer-Future/dp/1324106034Dan's 2025 annual letterhttps://danwang.co/2025-letter/Related…

S2 Geopolitics 2026, crossover with Seeking Truth From Facts podcast – #103

Jan 15, 2026 47m Transcript

Steve and Alf discuss geopolitical events of 2025 and what they expect in 2026.Links:Manifold episode with Han Feizi, Letter From…

S2 Polygenics and Machine SuperIntelligence; Billionaires, Philo-semitism, and Chosen Embryos – #102

Jan 01, 2026 1h Transcript

This is a two-part episode. The first ~30m covers the most important 2025 breakthroughs in polygenic embryo screening, while the second 30m focuses specifically on AI capabilities at the frontier of…

S2 Theoretical Physics With Generative AI – #101

Dec 18, 2025 1h 12m Transcript

All but the last 20 minutes of this episode should be comprehensible to non-physicists.Steve explains where frontier AI models are in understanding frontier theoretical physics. The best analogy is…

S2 Jeffrey Epstein, Israel, and Elite Power, with Murtaza Hussain – #100

Dec 04, 2025 1h 3m Transcript

Murtaza Hussain is a reporter for Drop Site News, which has brokenimportant stories based on recently obtained Epstein emails. Hussainreports that Epstein had an “extensive relationship with…

S2 Jian Lian on China's Industrial Policy and Global Strategy – #99

Nov 20, 2025 1h 12m Transcript

Jian Lian is an expert on China's political economy, industrial development, and technological development. He graduated from Peking University with a bachelor's and master's degree in economics.…

S2 Scott Horton on the Russia Hoax and Ukraine War – #98

Nov 06, 2025 1h 25m Transcript

Scott Horton is the author of Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine. Horton is a libertarian and anti-war activist. He and Steve discuss the…

S2 AIs Win Math Olympiad Gold: Prof. Lin Yang (UCLA) – #97

Oct 23, 2025 50m

Lin Yang is a professor of computer science at UCLA. Recently, he and his collaborator built an AI pipeline using commercial models such as Gemini, ChatGPT, and Grok that performed at the gold medal…

S2 The Global AI Race: Z.ai and the View from Beijing — #96

Oct 09, 2025 1h 6m Transcript

Zixuan Li is Director of Product and genAI Strategy at Z.ai. He was educated at Renmin and Tsinghua University in China, and at MIT and Carnegie Mellon. Z.ai has released frontier open source LLMs…

S2 Seeking Truth From Facts: Weeks Where Decades Happen — #95

Sep 25, 2025 48m Transcript

This episode is a co-release with the Seeking Truth From Facts podcast: https://substack.com/@seekingtruthfromfactsThe theme of this episode derives from Lenin:“There are decades where nothing…

S2 Kyle Chan on the Future of US-China Competition — #94

Sep 11, 2025 1h 10m Transcript

Kyle Chan is a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer in Sociology at Princeton University. His research focuses on industrial policy, clean technology, and infrastructure with a regional focus…

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Manifold have?

Manifold has published 164 episodes since January 2019, covering topics in Life Sciences, Natural Sciences.

Is Manifold still active?

Manifold is currently highly active with new episodes every 2 weeks. Average episode length is 1h 12m.

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