Tell Me, What Is It You Plan To Do With Your One Precious Life?

Welcome to?The?Art?of?The?Impossible, a weekly newsletter where I unearth five pieces?of?content which I hope will both inspire?and?embolden you.

And apologies for the lack of newsletter last week. I had to travel back to New Zealand for a funeral.

PODCAST

Monday before last, I had the great pleasure of interviewing Chris Anderson of TED, LIVE at Kindred London which was a wonderful experience and I am so grateful to Chris, Kindred and the AMAZING audience for making it such a special evening.

Sadly though, that morning, a relative passed away so I have been unable to edit the episode and get it out but I will release it next week so please keep you eyes/ears out for that.

Also, if you don’t already know Dwarkesh Patel, you should definitely check him and his podcast out.

Below is his episode with Patrick Collison of Stripe where they discuss - what it takes to process $1 trillion/year, how to build multi-decade APIs, companies, and relationships, what's next for Stripe As well as the incredible work they are doing at Arc Institute (co-founded by Patrick and set up “for curiosity-driven biomedical science and technology”), the financial infrastructure for AI agents, playing devil's advocate against progress studies, and much more.

Also, worth watching Dwarkesh’s latest episode which is with Demis Hassabis of DeepMind - find here.

QUOTE

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

INTERVIEW

A wonderful interview - Carl Sagan on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, May 20th, 1977.

In this 13 mins interview, Sagan and Carson discuss: how do you define intelligence, his book The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, the beauty of reading a book, human memory, children’s natural curiosity and more.

Watch the interview here.

BOOK

Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That’s a Good Thing) by Salman Khan

New book coming out in May by Khan Academy founder Sal Khan who I am a huge fan of.

Book blurb:

Whether we like it or not, the AI revolution is coming to education. In Brave New Words, Salman Khan, the visionary behind Khan Academy, explores how artificial intelligence and GPT technology will transform learning, offering a roadmap for teachers, parents, and students to navigate this exciting (and sometimes intimidating) new world.

A pioneer in the world of education technology, Khan explains the ins and outs of these cutting-edge tools and how they will forever change the way we learn and teach. Rather than approaching the ChatGPT revolution with white-knuckled fear, Khan wants parents and teachers to embrace AI and adapt to it (while acknowledging its imperfections and limitations). He emphasizes that embracing AI in education is not about replacing human interaction but enhancing it, so that every student can complement the work they're already doing in profoundly new and creative ways, to personalize learning, adapt assessments, and support success in the classroom, preparing students for an increasingly digital future.

But Brave New Words is not just about technology - it's about what this technology means for our society, and the practical implications for administrators, guidance counsellors, and hiring managers who can harness the power of AI in education and the workplace. Khan also delves into the ethical and social implications of AI and GPT, offering thoughtful insights into how we can use these tools to build a more accessible education system for students around the world.

Out May 14th, pre-order now here.

FILM

Shirley

Regina King stars as Shirley Chisholm in Shirley - the story of the first Black congresswoman and her trailblazing run for president of the United States. The film chronicles Shirley’s ambitious, ground-breaking 1972 presidential campaign.

In 1972, Chisholm became the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s nomination for president but she was already a pioneer as in 1968, the Brooklyn native made history as the first Black woman elected to the US Congress.

Out later this month on Netflix.

Thank you for reading?the?newsletter?and?for listening to?the?podcast, and?if you enjoy them, please do share with your network - my goal is to have these stories reach as many as possible so that others can be inspired too. And if you have two minutes, please do leave a review for the podcast - it would mean the world to me and helps others to find it too.

Danielle