This week on No Priors, Elad sits down with Rick Caruso, LA real estate developer and runner-up in the 2022 mayoral race. With experience serving under three LA mayors, as well as on the police commission and the board of water and power, Rick offers a unique perspective on the systemic failures that contributed to the devastation of the January 2025 wildfir ... Show More
Nov 19
Sunday Robotics: Scaling the Home Robot Revolution with Co-Founders Tony Zhao and Cheng Chi
The robotics industry is on the cusp of its own “GPT” moment, catalyzed by transformative research advances. Enter Memo, the first general-intelligence personal robot, focused on taking on your chores to give back your time. Sarah Guo sits down with Tony Zhao and Cheng Chi, co-fo ... Show More
39m 10s
Nov 13
How AI Will Accelerate Breakthroughs in Biotechnology with Benchling CEO Sajith Wickramasekara
Bringing new drugs to market is a costly, time-consuming endeavor. On top of that, most medicines fail at some point in the research and development phase. Sarah Guo is joined by Sajith Wickramasekara, co-founder and CEO of Benchling, a company that has not only become the centra ... Show More
48m 13s
Feb 2025
California Wildfires and the Insurance Crisis: What's Next for Palisades, Altadena and the L.A. Area
In January, communities in Los Angeles were devastated by wildfires, permanently displacing thousands and destroying property and lives. Prior to the fires, thousands of L.A. residents in fire-prone areas were dropped from their insurance, leaving them with no protection or safet ... Show More
37m 49s
Jan 2025
The L.A. Fires: How They Happened, Climate Change’s Role, and What the City Must Do Now
With so many confusing narratives unfolding around a fire that is still raging out of control, I wanted to talk to somebody I knew and trusted to get stories like this right. Robinson Meyer is the founder and editor of Heatmap News and a former staff writer at The Atlantic, where ... Show More
1h 4m
Jun 2025
Building AI tools to outsmart wildfires
In 1994, Joaquin Ramirez took a job with a wildland fire-fighting crew in his native Spain. That year, Spain saw some of the most destructive fires in its history, and Joaquin quickly realized he just wasn’t cut out to be a wildland firefighter.He left the crew, but he kept think ... Show More
21m 12s
Jan 2025
#399 — The Politics of Catastrophe
<p dir="ltr">Sam Harris speaks with Rick Caruso about the Los Angeles fires. They discuss how mismanagement may have contributed to the severity of the fires, who's to blame, the practice of private firefighting, rebuilding and the future of L.A., how DEI fueled public cynicism t ... Show More
1h 15m
Aug 2020
Daniel P. Aldrich, "Black Wave: How Networks and Governance Shaped Japan’s 3/11 Disasters" (U Chicago Press, 2020)
Despite the devastation caused by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 60-foot tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, some 96% of those living and working in the most disaster-stricken region of Tōhoku made it through. Smaller earthquakes and tsunamis have killed far more people in nearb ... Show More
44m 26s
Dec 2024
The growing megafire crisis — and how to contain it | George T. Whitesides
<p>Megafires, or fires that burn more than 100,000 acres, are becoming more frequent worldwide, wreaking havoc on landscapes and communities — and fire experts say the problem is only going to get worse. George T. Whitesides is focused on fighting these devastating natural disast ... Show More
14m 17s
May 2024
John J. Berger, "Solving the Climate Crisis: Frontline Reports from the Race to Save the Earth" (Seven Stories Press, 2023)
Solving the Climate Crisis: Frontline Reports from the Race to Save the Earth (Seven Stories Press, 2023) is a hopeful and critical resource that makes a convincing and detailed case that there is a path forward to save our environment. Illustrating the power of committed individ ... Show More
47m 47s