085: Weekly Digest No 14

085: Weekly Digest No 14

Podcast we loved 

It’s a series called Audience from the team at Castos. 

We get asked a lot about the process of podcasting. So rather than share how we do it, better to find some folk who already have. 

This series is an honest, unfiltered, and real-time view inside their journey to growing an impactful podcast. 

They share the best promotional strategies to the test, then report back on their successes and failures in each new episode.

The first two episodes shed light on the first questions every podcaster needs to answer: what is the show about and what gear should I use? They start with some context, digging into why make a podcast in the first place and give you the low down on their setup, what gear they use plus why a basic recording setup is all you need. 

They go beyond the basics and cover crafting your Narrative, pick apart the science of storytelling, and get candid about why some podcasts are stickier than others.

If you want to dip your toe, Audience is great place to start. 

We found this online

It’s a short 25 minute read on the Axios blog called Mega Trends that will shape the 21st Century they review forthcoming book, “The Precipice,” by Toby Ord of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute which gives 1 in 6 odds that humanity will suffer an existential catastrophe during the next 100 years — almost certainly due to our own actions.

But, Ord and others argue if we properly harness threatening technologies and mature as a species, we could not only survive the 21st Century, but thrive in it. This post gives you a succinct breakdown and provides a feast of interesting links to take you down the rabbit-hole.  

Recommended to Us

Living in New York, it’s normal that you have friends coming to the city for work, a short vacation, and a long weekend, and it’s not uncommon to be asked about what they should see and do, especially when they have tick boxes all the usual tourist spots. This post from Forbes ranked no1 angel investor Fabrice Grinda, does that job for us. Save this link if you’re heading to NYC soon. 

Social Impact 

Finally, this week this post confronts the reality that in 2019 we saw a fall for the second straight year. Whether driven changes in tax incentives or just compassion fatigue, this post provides ten evidence-based methods for encouraging people to give more to charity, that charities and individuals use to help overcome the tendency to limit generosity? 

Finally Last Weeks Podcast

Pamela H Smith was born and raised in a small isolated California town, influenced by what she describes as a ‘consistent, persistent, and gentle’ math teacher father and the ‘artistic and creative’ mother, serendipity led her to discover her love of the history of science in Woolongong University in Australia and then commit her life to be a historian of science.

Pamela is a Professor of History at Columbia University and Founding Director of the Center for Science and Society, where she leads the Making and Knowing Research Project. 

In part one of this two-parter, we discuss Pamela’s upbringing and her journey into the history of science. We also discuss the evolution of science, human progress through the centuries, creativity, curiosity and the acceleration of knowledge and the influence of social organization and networks as our economies and trade networks developed. 

We also discuss the growth of cities, the emergence of the artisan class, and the changing roles they played. 

In Part two we discuss how Pamela H Smith established the Making and Knowing Research Project, its purpose, and we discuss the origins of her most recent launch – The Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France. A Digital Critical Edition and it’s English Translation. That might sound dry to many, but this is a remarkable sixteenth-century manuscript that contains over 900 recipes for making art objects, medical remedies, and materials for the household and workshop. 

Pamela explains how the craft workshop practices record extensive first-hand experimentation with natural materials and provide unique insights into the material, technical, and intellectual world of the late sixteenth Century and bring a better understanding of how and why nature was investigated, collected, and used in art in early modern Europe. It sheds light on the origins of the natural sciences in the creative labors of Renaissance artists and artisans’ workshops. 

The digital critical edition is an open-source resource that is available for anyone to experiment and follow the recipes and directions. 

We also cover her views of education, failure, persistence, and the need to create a more evolved and sustainable economic model. 

Please enjoy and share this extensive exploration and mind-expanding journey through the history of science with Pamela H Smith. 

Don’t Stop Here

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