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17mins
MIT Media Lab researcher Deb Roy has applied his study of linguistics and childhood development to a company he founded called BlueFin Labs, which has built a machine to connect […]
2mins
“There’s always an opportunity to give money, if that’s an option,” says Mary Ellen Iskenderian. “But giving money is just not sufficient. You’ve got to really make sure that the […]
19mins
Penn Jillette rates Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and the various other candidates for the U.S. Presidency in 2012 from the perspective of an atheist.
2mins
There are two areas of great importance in scientific research today, namely the health of our planet, and the health of our bodies. Doug Melton explores the latter, regenerative biology, […]
3mins
Doug Melton, Co-Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, on the new frontier in biotechnology: creating human organs.
2mins
Over-reliance on foreign aid as opposed to tax revenue, says Sophal Ear, a leading expert on post-crisis economies, leads to corruption.
3mins
Ethan Philbrick performs at The Nantucket Project. Ethan grew up on Nantucket and has been playing music voraciously since he was 4 years old. Ethan has played music in a […]
11mins
Comedian Maureen Langan entertained the audience at The Nantucket Project, a festival of ideas that took place in October on Nantucket, Massachusetts.
2mins
Daniel Altman explains the origins of the European Union and why it’s in so much trouble today.
2mins
Activist investor, hedge-fund manager, and Floating University lecturer Bill Ackman explains the importance of investing over the long run.
2mins
Coming from an upper middle class family, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita says, he could have afforded to pay some tuition. Instead, he was the beneficiary of the tax dollars of […]
4mins
Particle physics. Human self-determination. Evolution. According to Renaissance scholar Stephen Greenblatt, we owe these modern ideas to an ancient Roman poem, rediscovered in 1417.
3mins
In this portion of his Floating University lecture, activist investor William Ackman talks about investing in the kind of company that you can own forever. In other words, what is […]
3mins
According to physician and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the major problem with health care in the U.S. is the country spends twice as much on health care as […]
3mins
In addition to demotivating talented workers, an opaque and dictatorial leadership style can silence innovation from below, leaving the leader in charge of coming up with all the great ideas.
2mins
The Floating University’s first course, Great Big Ideas: An Entire Undergraduate Education While Standing On One Foot, is being used to teach courses at Harvard, Yale, and Bard this fall […]
4mins
A new online course that is currently being offered at Harvard, Yale and Bard is threatening to disrupt higher education as we know it. As tuition costs continue to skyrocket, […]
2mins
The average student graduates with $23,000 in debt. “That’s a lot of debt for a 22-year-old,” says Michael Ellsberg – and when you combine it with astronomical rates of unemployment […]
2mins
To be a successful investor you have to be able to avoid some natural human tendencies to follow the herd. You have to have a stomach to withstand the volatility […]