Welcome to the After-On Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Reed.

And this is a series of conversations with thinkers, founders, and scientists.

Take a little time and stretch out because these talks are unhurry and meant to bring you

to a top percentile understanding of something important.

So whether you're ready to start up or ideas, a techie or a lit major, take your time, engage

your mind, and you'll be glad you did it.

Especially this week when we'll be talking to Chris Anderson, who is the de facto CEO

of the TED organization, although he does not take that title.

Chris is one of my favorite people in the world, in part because he says things like this.

The future of the world is terrifying if you think of it as 12 billion mounds to feed,

warming soon your way. The world is going to struggle with that.

If you think of it as 12 billion mounds each of which could make some kind of contribution

to the future, the future potentially gets thrilling.

One way or another, it's definitely the biggest experiment that humanity has ever undertaken.

We'll get to the words that surround that quote in a bit, but for now some quick context.

You've probably seen a TED talk or two, or maybe 500, in your time online.

TED talks are brainy. They often run 15 minutes or more and they call for undivided attention.

In this, they're the opposite of that lizard brain realm of clickbait fake news and

ADD that so much of the internet has become.

You may be aware that many TED talks are taped at an annual event that draws the likes of

Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, the Google Founders Elon Musk and Al Gore, who gave the forerunner

of his inconvenient truth speech at a TED conference.

...