Techtopia with Chitra Ragavan
by Chitra Ragavan, Founder and CEO, Goodstory
Techtopia with Chitra Ragavan is a podcast examining the power, peril and promise of technology. Chitra explores the latest technological wonders, interviews the creative entrepreneurs behind them, delves into the dark side of these omnipresent innovations and examines technology’s profound impact on people and society.
Episodes
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Ep. 27 — The U.S. Government attempts to shape sweeping crypto policies amidst market turbulence and massive ransomware hacks / Carole House, Director of Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation at National Security Council, The White House
This past April, the FBI disclosed an astonishing fact about the breach of the blockchain behind the popular “play to earn” game Axie Infinity a few weeks earlier. The FBI said the hackers who stole $615 million dollars in cryptocurrency were, in fact, from the group “Lazarus” which has direct…
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Ep. 26 — Technology is rewriting how human history is told / Alex Deane and Bryan Cunningham, “Hidden History, Happy Hour”
With Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine — resulting in what’s become the first war to be largely televised and video-recorded — Ukraine has become Ground Zero for how technology is reshaping history’s narratives and the story of politics, war and conflict. I have two great guests to talk…
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Ep. 25 — A disturbing new report on the explosive growth of ransomware attacks and proliferation of Russian ransomware groups / Max Galka, CEO and Founder, Elementus.
It’s no secret that Russia has become the world’s playground for ransomware groups —- and that America is target #1. The threat of ransomware attacks on U.S. businesses and critical infrastructure recently took an ominous turn when a prominent Russian ransomware group named Conti — threatened to...
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Ep. 24 — An exclusive look at the elite IRS Criminal Investigation where “accountants with guns” solve complex, federal tax crimes, including Russian oligarch sanctions violations /James Robnett, Deputy Chief, IRS Criminal Investigation.
“Accountants with guns” — These are the special agents of the Criminal Investigation division of the Internal Revenue Service. There’s 2,000 of them. And they have not only plenty of firepower, but they’re also armed with the sole mandate across the US Government to investigate violations of...
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Ep. 23 – Another year of death, disruption, and depression from COVID-19 and now, a new variant, Omicron. Is there an end in sight? / Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr, co-hosts, Coronavirus: The Truth.
Welcome to the final episode of Season 1 of Techtopia! I thought it would be appropriate to end the year as we began it, talking about Covid-19 and its pernicious impact on our lives, psyche, and the healthcare system at large. Hard as it may seem to imagine, we’re now entering year three of...
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Ep. 22 — The Role of Technology in Human Trafficking / Anjana Rajan, Chief Technology Officer, Polaris.
Jeffrey Epstein never faced the consequences for allegedly trafficking dozens of girls, some as young as age 14, and engaging in sex acts with them. He committed suicide in jail 35 days after he was arrested, avoiding a trial and potentially, half a century in prison for his evil actions. Now,...
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Ep. 21 — The Global AI Arms Race and the Future of Artificial Intelligence / Courtney Bowman, Director of Privacy and Civil Liberties Engineering, Palantir Technologies.
The world is engaged in a new form of war — this one centered around the technology called artificial intelligence — which, put simply — is the science and art of making machines more human. But at what cost? The race to dominate in Artificial Intelligence, also known as the global AI arms race…
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Ep. 20 — How the Department of Defense is acting like venture capitalists to draw in and nurture startups and adopt the best of the best in technology / Daniel Borkhus Co-Founder and CEO, Holos; Jeremy Neilson, Master Sergeant, U.S. Air Force; and James Boyd, Co-Founder, Adyton.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has been on the forefront of some of the biggest technological innovations in history. At the same time, the so-called, defense industrial complex — that is, DoD, in cahoots with the big legacy defense contractors or the so-called “Beltway Bandits” — have also...
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Ep. 19 — A Veteran CIA Operative Looks Back on the Early Days of the War in Afghanistan and the Implications of the Recent Pull Out / Michael Hurley, Former CIA Operations Officer & Senior Counsel and Team Leader 9/11 Commission.
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, the frenetic U..S. pullout of Afghanistan under dangerous conditions has reopened the wounds of those strikes and once again raises the specter of al Qaeda and ISIS taking root in Afghan soil — posing new global…
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Ep. 18 — A War Photographer Assesses the Ramifications of the U.S. Pullout of Afghanistan / Lynsey Addario, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photojournalist.
As the situation in Afghanistan deteriorates with shocking speed, tens of thousands of Americans and Afghan citizens — who’ve worked closely with Americans over the past two decades, are confronting perilous conditions as they try to reach the Kabul airport and leave the country. Major news...
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Ep. 17 — The Global Race to Secure 5G Networks Against Cyber Threats from China and other Geopolitical Adversaries / Rob Strayer, EVP, Information Technology Industry Council & Former Ambassador for Cyber Policy at U.S. State Department.
The world’s wireless systems are going through a major technology transformation through fifth-generation cellular networks — known as 5G for short. In addition to lightning-speed downloads for your smartphones, and faster speeds for your favorite streaming videos, 5G is expected to help the…
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Ep. 16 — The Abracadabra of the FDA’s Surprise Approval of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s Drug, Aduhelm / Dr. Robert Pearl, Physician, Author, Podcast Co-Host, “Fixing Healthcare,” & Joanne Silberner, Freelance Health and Science Journalist.
Ever since the disease was recognized more than 100 years ago, patients with Alzheimer’s, and their families and caregivers, have longed for an effective drug for this brutal and tragic disease. But last month, when the Food and Drug Administration finally approved a drug named Aduhelm for use as...
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Ep. 15 — This sports startup is transforming the world of track and field data analytics for athletes, coaches, and fans / Chris Williams, Founder, and CEO, Zelos.
For decades, like in many other sports, track and field athletes and coaches have been stymied by their inability to easily use analytics to help athletes reach their highest potential, with their performance data trapped largely in paper silos. In the lead-up to the Tokyo Summer Olympics,...
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Ep. 14 — The ABCs of NFTs and their role in digital journalism and the creator economy / Zach Seward, Co-founder & CEO, Quartz.
Over the past seven months, non-fungible tokens or NFTs have captured the world’s imagination and hype cycle, especially after the digital artist known as Beeple sold an NFT, which is a blockchain-verified proof of transfer of ownership, for one of his prints, for a record $69 million. Since…
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Ep. 13 — The Exoplanet Revolution, Technosignatures, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence / Adam Frank, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Rochester.
After decades of secrecy, the US Government last week shared a new report about unidentified flying objects or UFOs and the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence. The bottom line: more studies are needed, the report said, raising more questions than it answered. Renowned astrophysicist…
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Ep. 12 — A 64-year old non-fiction book, Flying Saucer Pilgrimage, has new resonance today in light of an upcoming U.S. government report on UFOs / Bryan Cunningham, Executive Director, UCI Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute.
UFOs are back in the news. After decades of secrecy, the American public and especially UFO-believers are waiting for a report from the Defense Department to Congress this month. The report is expected to reveal what our military, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies know, and don’t know,...
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Ep. 11 – How Covid-19 is reshaping cities and smart cities / Michael Proman, Managing Director, Scrum Ventures.
COVID-19 virtually overnight changed the tone, tenor, and texture of cities, bringing the global economy to a slow grind and forcing people to retreat into bubbles, silos, and pods, and remote work — connected mainly through social media and Zoom. Now, as we slowly start to get a grip on the…
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Ep. 10 – The data-driven transformation of Hollywood and the television industry / Anjali Midha, CEO & Co-Founder, Diesel Labs & John Mass, Executive Vice-President, Content Partners.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the entertainment industry was being upended by the rapid pace of streaming and other technology. Then COVID-19 hit, shuttering movie theaters, shutting down the world, and driving people into their homes and in front of our television screens, where we’ve…
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Ep. 9 — How Technology and the Digital Media Revolution are Transforming the Global Media Landscape / Marcus Brauchli, Journalist, Co-founder, North Base Media.
Technology is shaking up the news media — as content creators of every ilk and genre have taken advantage of the digital revolution, commoditizing content and forever blurring the lines between e-commerce and content, news and entertainment, information and disinformation. One media executive who...
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Ep. 8 — How Polaris is fighting QAnon in its use of human trafficking disinformation campaigns / Anjana Rajan, Chief Technology Officer, Polaris.
When tech entrepreneur Anjana Rajan joined Polaris as its Chief Technology Officer last year, she thought she was setting aside her prior focus on domestic terrorism to help Polaris with its core mission of fighting human trafficking. But then Rajan learned the far-right conspiracy group QAnon…
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Ep. 7 — How a patient with a rare tumor is taking personalized medicine to a new level through a unique non-profit biomedical research initiative / Vanessa Slavich, Head of Community, Celo & Peter Kane, Founder & Executive Director, Research to the People.
For nine years, Vanessa Slavich took a traditional, reactive, “whack-a-mole” approach to manage her battle against a rare and aggressive tumor, working with highly specialized doctors operating in various treatment silos. Frustrated with the outcomes, this year, Slavich is taking a new more...
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Ep. 6 — How the COVID-19 vaccines will change our approach to future pxandemics / Dr. Robert Pearl, Author, Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors and Patients.
The extraordinary scientific and technological innovations around the COVID-19 vaccines have enabled the U.S. government and governments around the world to deploy multiple vaccines against the lethal virus — allowing a gradual reopening of society and return to a new normal. What do we need to…
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Ep. 5 — Technology has given women a powerful voice in the alt-right movement / Seyward Darby, Author, Sisters in Hate: American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism.
A large number of women participated in the rioting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 by violent supporters of former President, Donald Trump. Some allegedly played a key role in plotting the protests and two of the five people killed in the riots were women. How have women exploited technology to...
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Ep. 4 — The semiconductor chip shortage, what’s causing it, why it matters, and what we need to do about it / John Neuffer, President and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association.
There’s a global semiconductor chip shortage brought on by the massive supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And it’s hurting U.S. industries in a big way. President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order to try to help industries ranging from medical supplies to electric...
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Ep. 3 — Bitcoin and the boom in cryptocurrency investing / Perianne Boring, Founder and President, Chamber of Digital Commerce.
What’s causing Bitcoin mania and massive investments in cryptocurrency by institutional investors? Perianne Boring, Founder and President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, explains the economic and geo-political forces at play. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Well, Bitcoin...
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Ep. 2 — Radicalization and the January 6 Capitol Hill Riots / Anne Speckhard, Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism.
How did technology fuel the explosive birth and growth of the nationalistic extremist movements fueled by former President Donald Trump? How does it compare to the proliferation of foreign terrorist threats? And how can the U.S. government wield technology to combat domestic radicalization? Anne...
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Ep. 1 — Conspiracy Theories and the January 6 Capitol Hill Riots / Joseph Coohill, Professor Buzzkill History Podcast.
How did technology fuel the conspiracy theories that resulted in the unprecedented sacking of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th by violent Donald Trump supporters? Joseph Coohill, professor of modern world history and host of the popular Professor Buzzkill History Podcast offers perspectives on how...
About this show
Techtopia with Chitra Ragavan is a podcast examining the power, peril and promise of technology. Chitra explores the latest technological wonders, interviews the creative entrepreneurs behind them, delves into the dark side of these omnipresent innovations and examines technology’s profound impact on people and society.
Hosted by
Chitra Ragavan, Founder and CEO, Goodstory
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