Pop!Tech Pop!Casts (and Some New TED Talks)

Each October, Pop!Tech brings together 550+ leaders in science, technology, business, social
entrepreneurship, the arts, culture and media to "explore the social impact of innovative technologies, breakthrough scientific discoveries and original approaches to tackling humanity’s toughest challenges."  And quite nicely some of the major talks are captured and made available to you via video podcasts (iTunes – Feed – Web Site). Among the downloadable recordings, you’ll find talks by Thomas Friedman (New York Times writer and author of The World is Flat), Carolyn Porco (who leads the Imaging Science Team on the Cassini mission to Saturn), Richard Dawkins (where doesn’t this guy speak these days?), Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail and ubiquitous speaker), and Martin Marty (a leading commentator on religion and culture).

Just to give you a little more context, the latest conference was organized around the following agenda:

What is a “dangerous” idea? It’s one that upends conventions, challenges assumptions and breaks taboos, reordering our sense of the world and our place within it. It’s an idea, as Victor Hugo said, whose time has come…. Here’s just some of what we’ll be discussing:

• The nature of risk in the connected age
• Bright green possibilities
• Globalization’s great surprises
• The role of faith and fundamentalism
• Pandemics and their prevention
• New approaches to education
• The creative imperative
• New frontiers of exploration
• What technology wants from us
• Our constructed selves
• Conflict, resolution and the possibility of peace

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that TED Talks, a rather similar conference that brings together the cognoscenti, has just re-launched its web site and also released videos from its April conference. Though they’re not yet accessible on iTunes, you can grab these talks from the web site and feed. Tune in and give a listen to Bill Clinton, E.O. Wilson, Thomas Dolby, Jeff Bezos and more.