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PODCAST

How to Change the World: The History & Future of Innovation

How To Change The World | Sam Webster Harris

Sam Webster Harrischronicles the completehistory of innovationfrom the Stone Age to the modern day. Learn how transformative ideas build upon each other to change the world and shape the future of humanity.Every breakthrough that changes civilization begins with curiosity. From the first controlled fire to artificial intelligence. Follow the journey, step-by-step, tracing the evolution of human progress and society. On the way, uncovering thenerdy storiesand fun facts behind world-changing

history

All Episodes

28:49

Thinking in Primitives: A mental model to dissect the...

How to Change the World: The History & Future of... ·

2025/10/31

The most important innovations are invisible. Yet they are reliable building blocks of creativity that fuel human imagination.The same 26 letter alphabet lets Shakespeare write a play, a researcher publish science or you can text your mum.A standardised screw thread lets you build a house, a car or a space station.This is the story of primitives; the fundamental components that make everything else possible. We explore how Jeff Bezos coining the term "Thinking in Primitives" as he invented AWS to

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59:19

[~64,000BCE] - The Bow & Arrow: A Brief History of...

How to Change the World: The History & Future of... ·

2025/10/15

From Stone flakes to the Bow and Arrow. How Stone Age weapons innovation shaped humanity and triggered global extinction events. Three million years ago, we were semi-hairless apes hiding from lions. Today we're the apex predator of planet Earth.This episode traces the entire weapons journey through Ancient History; sharp rocks, hand axes, spears, atlatls, and bows and arrows.Learn how we became humans we know today as we outsourced biology to technology, trading muscle for tools, brute force for

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38:07

Systems Thinking: How to Dance with Chaos and Build...

How to Change the World: The History & Future of... ·

2025/09/10

Most problems in the world aren't random accidents, they're built into the systems we live in. Let's look beyond cause-and-effect to study the currents that change the world and our lives.Systems Thinking is a key idea in science, politics and business, but it knows no boundaries as systems show up everywhere. When challenges overwhelm us instead of giving up hope and blaming the mysterious 'system', we can dig in to understand what's going on and what to do about it.In every era of humanity we

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1:12:44

[~70,000BCE] - The Cognitive Revolution: Language and...

How to Change the World: The History & Future of... ·

2025/08/18

How language and cooperation shaped our world and human society.Discover how language transformed from simple signals to complex communication, enabling us to cooperate, create cultures, and build civilizations. We explore the evolution of human imagination, the role of gossip, the development of societal morals, and the paradoxical nature of human violence and compassion.Additionally, we discuss the future of communication technology and the potential mind-blowing implications of brain-computer

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32:30

The Laws of Nature: 3 Rules Governing the Success of...

How to Change the World: The History & Future of... ·

2025/07/10

Why do some ideas and technologies proliferate, whilst others die painfully?Innovations aren't just bound merely the laws of Physics, but also the powerful laws of Nature and Biology.In the "Lessons of History", Will and Ariel Durant propose the 3 Laws of Biology. Extending on the work of Charles Darwin, they explain the rules that govern life on earth and how it applies to humanity. In this episode, Sam extends the concept whilst also explaining a brief history of life on Earth whilst he's at it.In

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51:56

[~1.8 Mya] - Fire: The Innovation that Forged...

How to Change the World: The History & Future of... ·

2025/06/27

Do we really control fire?While you're patting yourself on the back for lighting that barbecue, fire has been pulling the strings for 2 million years, reshaping our anatomy, rewiring our brains, and dictating our social structures.It transformed us from ape-like creatures that had a neat standing trick into the cunning apex predator of the world. Along the way, it upended both ecosystems and gender roles but most importantly, made us human.The lesser-known of fire is that an individual human is

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46:48

Innovation Richter Scale - Measuring How Technology...

How to Change the World: The History & Future of... ·

2025/06/04

How to rank the impact of innovations on humanity and how much they really changed the world.It's easy to tell that the invention of talking is more important than Velcro. But is Netflix more important than Baseball? Has TikTok changed the world as much as the Longbow?History has opinions, so it's time for a scale that lets us rationally measure global impact.NOTE - This episode expands on the Technological Richter Scale proposed by Nate Silver. (see references)ABOUTThis show is an independent

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1:08:58

The 5 Stone Age Locks on Innovation

How to Change the World: The History & Future of... ·

2025/05/20

What lies at the core of human progress?This episode sets the scene for all human innovation. For 3.5 million years, humans and our ancestors were stuck in the Stone Age.We cover:What were we busy with for 97% of our existence?Why were we so slow at innovating?How did we eventually overcome these fundamental forces?From personal pressures to global forces, we trace the blocks on human development. The answers hold many insights for today when we think about innovation and how to make progress..This

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30:24

Introduction to How to Change the World

How to Change the World: The History & Future of... ·

2025/05/20

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it" - Alan WattsThis opening episode invites you on a journey, not just through time, but through perspective.From fire-starting hominids to spacefaring technologists, we are going to trace the ripples of human imagination that turned tools into empires, and sparks into systems.In this introduction episode:Set the tone for the podcastExplain what the show is and isn'tLearn how we are going to navigate this journeyAnswer who the hell is this

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2:10

How to Change the World in 2 minutes

How to Change the World: The History & Future of... ·

2025/05/19

What is the best way to tackle the question "How to change the world"? Learn about our plan to dissect the history and future of innovation.This show will dissect how the world really works and the impact of the biggest inventions that lead to a step change. We'll also tell the stories of the greatest innovators from history and understand their mental models, mindsets and habits.In this promo, Host Sam Webster Harris explains in 2 minutes what he'll be doing for the next 10 years. Hosted on Acast

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