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Malcolm Collins is a neuroscientist-turned-entrepreneur-turned-VC-turned-education innovator. Along with his wife Simone, he is one of Amazon's top 100 best-selling non-fiction writers.

Learn more about their work:

The Pragmatist Foundation

The Collins Institute for the Gifted

Malcolm and Simone's latest books.

Timestamps:

2:46 Malcolm explains why he and his wife did embryo selection

7:18 Do people realize what they’re arguing for?

10:15 Overlooking positive pleiotropy & other bad arguments

17:18 Malcolm’s theory of the cultural super virus

18:25 Malcolm's general pessimism & falling birth rates

22:02 The case for optimism: religiosity, ritual, and exogenous motivators

23:47 Should we talk about the dysgenic effect on IQ?

24:44 The role of religion in this brave new world

26:55 Religion as a cultural software package

30:18 Malcolm’s plan to save the world!

33:28 Malcolm's idea of “descendant worship” & his thoughts on belief

34:28 Can artificial beliefs really take hold?

38:35 Is our current progress a blip & how a neo-Byzantium can survive

41:08 How many people would actually use genetic technology?

45:20 The ick factor of genetic tech

46:42 The costs and pains of IVF

If you prefer, you can watch our beautiful faces here (apologies for the dodgy audio quality this week):