From founding billion-dollar companies to reshaping debates on technology and governance, Joe Lonsdale has spent his career at the frontier of progress. Recorded in June 2025 with Etan Ilfeld, this episode dives into the future of AI, national resilience, and what it takes to build and protect the civilization of tomorrow.
Terence Stamp passed away on August 17, 2025.
Recorded a decade earlier, this episode is both a time capsule and a tribute to a legendary actor, artist, and seeker.
On July 26, 2015 in London, Etan Ilfeld sat down with Stamp for an intimate and wide-ranging conversation. Best known for films such as Billy Budd, The Collector, Superman II, and The Limey, he spoke candidly about his life on and off the screen—his collaborations with icons like Marlon Brando and Laurence Olivier, his reflections on figures from Winston Churchill to the Queen Mother, and his years of spiritual exploration in India and beyond.
He also shared insights on health, discipline, voice, and the daily practices that shaped his outlook—wisdom later distilled into his memoir The Ocean Fell into the Drop, published by Watkins.
This conversation is shared in memory of an extraordinary artist and human being.
This interview took place on March 13, 2024. David Lynch is a writer and director of groundbreaking films like Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. In this interview, he discusses the power of Transcendental Meditation (TM), which he's done every day for over 50 years. He also shares his outlook on life and synchronicity. His creative endeavours include building and designing furniture, recording a solo album, and much more. This interview also references his autobiography Room to Dream published in 2017.
Stephen Wolfram is one of a kind, he's a mathematician, computer scientist, and theoretical physicist. He's also the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, which includes Mathematica and Wolfram alpha. He's written numerous books, including A New Kind of Science, which delved into the mystery of cellular automata, and most recently, What is ChatGPT Doing and Why Does it Work?
Etan Ilfeld and Stephen Wolfram discuss a wide range of topics from the future of artificial intelligence to open source versus proprietary software, to the evolution of culture and the future of education.
Many have studied it, written about it and even died for it and yet, it appears, we are mostly blind to the essence of love. Dr Liat Yakir takes us on a fascinating journey through the evolution of love in history and in modern times, showing the importance of hormones, neurons and genes that dictate who we’ll fall in love with and who we’ll reject.
A Brief History of Love is Dr Liat Yakir's first book.
Masayuki "Mochy" Mochizuki is a two-time Backgammon World Champion and is widely regarded as the greatest living backgammon player. In this interview with Etan Ilfeld, Mochy shares his insights on the influence of Artificial Intelligence in both games and life, and explains why he believes backgammon is a powerful tool for learning, personal growth, and developing strategic thinking.
Uri Levine is the founder of Waze and Moovit, and one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs. In this interview with Etan Ilfeld, he gives you the ultimate guide to starting and running a business. He is also the author of Fall in Love with the Problem Not the Solution, which is published by Watkins.
As the cofounder of Waze – the world's leading commuting and navigation app with more than 700 million users to date, and which Google acquired in 2013 for $1.15 billion – Levine is committed to spreading entrepreneurial thinking so that other founders, managers, and employees in the tech space can build their own highly valued companies. Levine offers an inside look at the creation and sale of Waze and his second unicorn, Moovit, revealing the formula that drove those companies to compete with industry veterans and giants alike. He offers tips on:
Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution offers mentorship in a book from one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and empowers you to build a successful business by identifying your consumers' biggest problems and disrupting the inefficient markets that currently serve them.
Tony Buzan believed that anyone can improve their memory, creativity, reading speed and spiritual intelligence. He developed mind mapping as a learning tool, co-founded the memory world championship, the mind sports olympiad, and the mind, body and spirit festival. He also managed to write over eighty books and was the editor of the International Journal of Mensa! His last book, Mind Mapping 2.0, was also a bestseller and has already been translated into 19 languages. Tony past away in 2019, at the age of 76 but not before leaving a very positive impact on the world. The interview you’re about to hear was recorded in 2016.
Oliver Roeder is a journalist in New York City. Recently, he has been a senior writer at FiveThirtyEight and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Roeder holds a PhD in economics with a focus on game theory, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Economist, Slate, Nautilus, Aeon and elsewhere. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human. This interview includes the development of AIs in games, and classic games such as Go, Checkers (aka Draughts), Bridge, Poker, Chess, Backgammon, and Scrabble.
Julia Cameron is often referred to as the High Priestess of creativity and has authored more than forty books. Her best-selling title is called The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path To Higher Creativity, and has sold over five million copies and has been translated into over forty languages.
Julia is also a poet, songwriter, filmmaker, and playwright. She really can do it all.
Join me for this inspiring conversation on how to unleash your creative potential!
Ben Pridmore is a three-time World Memory Champion winning the title 2004, 2008 and 2009. From Derby in the United Kingdom, Pridmore achieved this by winning a 10-discipline competition, the World Memory Championship, which has taken place every year since 1991. He has also earned the prestigious title of Master of Memory. Ben has an IQ of 159 putting him in the genius range.
He held the official world record for memorizing the order of a randomly shuffled 52-card deck, and has memorised a pack in a time of 24.68 seconds on television. This record was beaten in 2010 by German memory athlete and lawyer Simon Reinhard. Pridmore's victory at the 2009 World Championship was his eighth consecutive memory competition win since coming second at the 2007 World Championship. He is the title holder for the UK Memory Champion for the years 2007–2011 and 2013 and Welsh Open Memory Champion 2009–2012 and 2014.
Besides memory sports he is famous for his mental calculation skills and took part in the Mental Calculation World Cup in 2004, 2006 and 2010. He has also won several medals at the Mind Sports Olympiad including becoming the 2001 World Champion at the ten disciplined mind sport competition the decamentathlon including also chess and reversi.
Liara Roux is a sex worker, political organizer, writer and artist. She also writes comics, stars in porn and has become a prominent emerging voice. Her recently published memoir, Whore of New York has received a glowing New York Times review and she has recently been interviewed by Vogue and VICE. She's brilliant, charismatic and a truly independent thinker.
Marianne Deborah Williamson is an American author, spiritual leader, politician, and activist. She has written 13 books, including four New York Times number-one bestsellers. She currently ranks 9th on the Watkins list of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People. Marianne also founded several charities and launched a series of conferences called Sister Giant to encourage more women to run for political office and campaigned last year for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. In this interview, we discuss her New York Times bestseller, Everyday Grace, as a stepping stone to probe her brilliant mind.
Russell Brand needs no introduction. Brand is a brilliant thinker, activist, actor, author, and comedian. His books have dealt with issues ranging from mentorship to addiction and mental health. In this interview, we discuss his book Revolution, which advocates for a non-violent social revolution based on principles of spirituality and the common good.
Welcome to the Etan Ilfeld Podcast, where we explore transformative ideas with visionary thinkers from around the globe. Today, I’m honored to host Dr. Tony Nader, a globally recognized Vedic scholar, Harvard-trained medical doctor, and the successor to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as the leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement. Dr. Nader joins us to discuss his new book, Consciousness Is All There Is, which blends ancient wisdom with modern science, offering practical insights into how we can transcend surface-level experiences and connect with deeper states of consciousness.
In this episode, we explore the intricate connections between the universe, consciousness, and the human experience, while delving into how meditation and self-awareness can elevate our lives. Dr. Nader’s ability to fuse timeless teachings with contemporary scientific understanding promises to offer a wealth of insights for listeners.
Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest filmmakers in the 20th century. In this podcast, film scholars Nathan Abrams and Robert Kolker discuss their latest book, Kubrick: An Odyssey published by Faber & Faber in 2024.
Kolker and Abrams are interviewed by Etan Ilfeld, where they discuss what made Kubrick's career remarkable and deconstruct the myths surrounding him. The films discussed include A Clockwork Orange, Spartacus, Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, and Full Metal Jacket.
William_Hartston is a polymath and author. From winning the British Chess Championship to writing opera reviews, his curiosity knows no bounds. In this interview, Etan Ilfeld and him discuss the history of comedy and what makes us laugh white reviewing his latest book, Knock Knock! In Pursuit of a Grand Unified Theory of Humour.
Here's a recent review of Hartston's book.
Rhonda Byrne has inspired millions of people through her book and film, The Secret. Since then, she's continued to publish numerous bestselling titles. In this interview she discusses how she learnt to use gratitude to overcome depression, increase her self-awareness and improve her health, and her ongoing spiritual journey.
Jim Al-Khalili is a professor of physics at the University of Surrey. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and also one of the world's best-known science communicators: He has presented numerous documentaries and hosts the acclaimed radio show, The Life Scientific, and his latest book, The World According to Physics, was published by Princeton University Press.
Topics range from the meaning of life to the chances of meeting extraterrestrials, the future of quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, which Jim assures us will change the world more than the internet has! We also discuss why Stephen Hawkings was wrong about the end of scientific progress, and better understand the nature of reality, the dangers of politicizing science, the meaning of science, and why enlightenment is better than ignorance.
Fabien Riggall is a maverick, an activist, and a creative rebel. He is the inventor and creative director of Future shorts, Future Cinema and Secret Cinema. He is also the co-founder of March for Europe and has campaigned for freedom of cultural expression and for the rights of migrants. In this interview, Etan Ilfeld and Fabien Riggall discuss the future of immersive experiences, cinema, and much more.
