Michael Stevens: Vsauce
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2019
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Stevens is the creator of Vsauce, one of the most popular educational YouTube channel in the world, with over 15 million subscribers and over 1.7 billion views. His videos often ask and answer questions that are both profound and entertaining, spanning topics from physics to psychology. As part of his channel he created 3 seasons of Mind Field, a series that explored human behavior.
This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts or support it on Patreon.
This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”.
Episode links:
Vsauce YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/Vsauce
Vsauce Twitter: https://twitter.com/tweetsauce
Vsauce Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/electricpants/
Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
00:00 – Introduction
02:26 – Psychology
03:59 – Consciousness
06:55 – Free will
07:55 – Perception vs reality
09:59 – Simulation
11:32 – Science
16:24 – Flat earth
27:04 – Artificial Intelligence
30:14 – Existential threats
38:03 – Elon Musk and the responsibility of having a large following
43:05 – YouTube algorithm
52:41 – Mortality and the meaning of life
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Michael Stevens, the creator of Vsauce, one of the |
| 0:04.7 | most popular educational YouTube channels in the world, with over 15 million subscribers |
| 0:10.0 | and over 1.7 billion views. |
| 0:13.1 | His videos often ask and answer questions that are both profound and entertaining, spanning |
| 0:19.1 | topics from physics to psychology. |
| 0:22.1 | Popular questions include, what if everyone jumped at once or what if the sun disappeared |
| 0:27.6 | or why are things creepy or what if the earth stopped spinning? |
| 0:32.8 | As part of his channel, he created three seasons of Mindfield, a series that explored human |
| 0:37.5 | behavior. |
| 0:38.8 | His curiosity and passion are contagious and inspiring to millions of people, and so |
| 0:44.2 | as an educator, his impact and contribution to the world is truly immeasurable. |
| 0:49.9 | This is the Artificial Intelligence Podcast. |
| 0:52.5 | If you enjoy it, subscribe on YouTube, give it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts, support it |
| 0:57.6 | on Patreon, or simply connect with me on Twitter, Alex Friedman spelled F-R-I-D-M-A-N. |
| 1:03.8 | I recently started doing ads at the end of the introduction. |
| 1:07.8 | I'll do one or two minutes after introducing the episode and never any ads in the middle |
| 1:12.7 | that break the flow of the conversation. |
| 1:14.7 | I hope that works for you and doesn't hurt the listening experience. |
| 1:19.0 | This show is presented by CashApp. |
| 1:21.5 | The number one finance app in the App Store. |
| 1:24.0 | I personally use CashApp to send money to friends, but you can also use it to buy, sell, |
| 1:28.3 | and deposit Bitcoin in just seconds. |
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