Best Silk Road Project Podcasts (2025)

1
Introducing: Pioneers of AI 1:58

8M ago1:58

1:58

We’re excited to launch WaitWhat's newest weekly series, Pioneers of AI — your guide to the latest technological frontier. Hosted by AI thought leader, scientist, and investor Rana el Kaliouby, tune in for insights from industry trailblazers, explore the ethical considerations of AI, and get ahead of what’s to come as the technology continues to de…

1
Introducing: Offsite Adventures 20:35

1y ago20:35

20:35

From the team behind Spark & Fire, we're happy to share the first episode of Offsite Adventures, our newest show uncovering the gems, magical moments, and unique learnings in iconic business travel destinations. Three minutes before midnight in Times Square, one of the most trafficked commercial centers in the world momentarily transforms into a vi…

1
#11 The Digital Silk Road 29:43

2y ago29:43

29:43

This month's guest is Meia Nouwens, senior fellow for Chinese Security and Defence Policy and head of the China Programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. Her expertise lies in Chinese cross-service defence analysis, China’s defence industry and innovation, as well as China’s regional strategic affairs and inte…

1
Create from joy: Writer Phoebe Robinson on "You Can’t Touch My Hair" 32:32

2y ago32:32

32:32

There’s a commonly held belief that great creative work comes from pain. But comedian and writer Phoebe Robinson says that this is a myth. Instead, Phoebe believes great creative work comes from a place of joy. As Phoebe shares her personal story of writing her debut essay collection, You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explai…

1
#10 The Chinese Fintech Revolution 35:52

2y ago35:52

35:52

Our guest this month is Martin Chorzempa, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and author of the book 'The Cashless Revolution: China's Reinvention of Money'. Martin joins Rogier to discuss everything from the impacts of the rise of Chinese fintech, to digital payment tools, and the ban on cryptocurrencies in China.…

1
5 ways to handle creative conflict 23:20

2y ago23:20

23:20

Creative conflict can destroy a work-in-progress — or it can push your work beyond good to great. What matters is how you respond. We’re going to hear from 5 creators in 5 very different fields who share actionable strategies (and great stories) about how to recognize, resolve, and harness conflict to create work that is visionary. Featuring “Froze…

1
Get to the fun part: Game creators Matthew Inman and Elan Lee on Exploding Kittens 35:17

2y ago35:17

35:17

To make something irresistible, get to the fun part — fast. That’s how Exploding Kittens became one of the world’s most popular games. When cartoonist Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal) and game developer Elan Lee (former Xbox) designed the card game Exploding Kittens, they took fun very seriously. This mindset unlocked their creativity in unexpected ways…

1
Trust creates gold: Comedian David Cross on “Arrested Development” 30:38

2y ago30:38

30:38

Behind every masterpiece — comedic, artistic, or otherwise — is a deep well of trust. Case in point: the legendary sit-com, Arrested Development. As Comedian David Cross shares the story of bringing to life the brilliantly absurd character Tobias Fünke, you’ll hear how every moment of comedic gold on the show was made possible by trust — trusting h…

1
Let emotion be your North Star: Composer Kris Bowers 28:49

2y ago28:49

28:49

This episode follows the composer Kris Bowers’ personal story about composing the score for the culture-shifting and emotionally devastating work When They See Us. This award-winning series follows the true story of five boys, wrongfully accused in 1989 of the brutal rape of a jogger in New York’s Central Park. The narrative spans a quarter-century…

1
# 9 China and the National Cyber Power Index 19:46

2y ago19:46

19:46

This month on the China Smart State Podcast, host Linda van der Horst interviews Julia Voo. Julia is a Cyber Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and leads the team behind Belfer's National Cyber Power Index. She was formerly the Research Director for the China Cyber Policy Initiative. Her areas of research concer…

1
5 strategies for overcoming failure 28:09

2y ago28:09

28:09

Failure is a normal part — even an essential part — of any creative journey. But that probably isn’t what you want to hear after experiencing failure yourself. It’s easy to just want to crawl into a hole for a while. Today on Spark & Fire, we’re going to crawl out of that hole long enough to hear from 5 iconic creatives who have learned how to over…

1
Fight for your dream: Comedian Cristela Alonzo 33:19

2y ago33:19

33:19

When the ABC show Cristela premiered in 2014, Cristela Alonzo made U.S. history, the first Latina to write, produce, and star in her own prime-time comedy. But this dream didn’t come easy: Cristela had to fight for her vision at every stage of the process. As she takes us on the journey to making the sitcom, you’ll hear how she found her first oppo…

1
Find the people who see your dream: Actor Aasif Mandvi 33:01

2y ago33:01

33:01

1
Always be iterating: Pomplamoose’s Jack Conte & Nataly Dawn 39:14

2y ago39:14

39:14

Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte started the band Pomplamoose together in 2008. The band found success with their viral YouTube videos, which have hundreds of millions of views. And while we usually tell the story of a single work on this show, in this episode, Jack and Nataly share the story of the band itself. The story of Pomplamoose is one of constan…

1
#8 Governance of Global Data Transfers 35:10

2+ y ago35:10

35:10

In this month’s episode of the China Smart State Podcasts our guest is Hunter Dorwart, policy counsel at the Future of Privacy forum and Associate at Bird&Bird. Together with hosts Rogier Creemers and Linda van der Horst, he discusses the role of China in international data flows and governance. The episode explores different aspects of cross borde…

1
Take responsibility for your creativity: Joseph Gordon-Levitt 33:09

2+ y ago33:09

33:09

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a creativity master. Many of us know him as an actor and director, but Joseph also co-created the collaborative media platform HitRECord. Joseph shares the journey of developing HitRECord: how it evolved from a single page of HTML to a global community of creative collaborators. Joseph’s story reveals that you have to take r…

1
5 strategies for starting something new 19:09

2+ y ago19:09

19:09

There’s an intimidating blank page. A blinking cursor staring you down. A looming deadline for a project you haven’t touched. Sometimes, starting something new is the hardest part of the creative process. In this episode, you’ll hear from 5 creative people in 5 different fields offering 5 different strategies for how to start something new. Featuri…

1
Tell a universal truth: “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz 41:11

2+ y ago41:11

41:11

Stephen Schwartz has a motto for songwriting: Tell the truth, and make it rhyme. In this episode, Stephen tells the story of composing the Broadway musical Wicked. Not only does Stephen reinvent a beloved classic for the stage, he also commits to drawing out the universal truths — like the experience of friendship, betrayal, and love — that connect…

1
Sweat the details: Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett 38:38

2+ y ago38:38

38:38

Felix Barrett, MBE, is the artistic director of Punchdrunk, a British theater company that specializes in immersive storytelling. In this episode, Felix shares the story of Sleep No More, Punchdrunk’s most famous and longest-running show. Sleep No More is a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth through a film noir lens. As Felix experiments with the…

1
Embrace your inner weirdo: Pixar’s Domee Shi on “Turning Red” 33:44

2+ y ago33:44

33:44

When Pixar asked Domee Shi to create a feature film, she ran to her friend’s office and rolled on the floor with joy. It was a dream come true. But Domee had to learn how to own her unique creative voice with all eyes on her, which meant embracing her inner weirdo. As Domee shares the story of directing Turning Red, you'll hear how she commits to s…

1
Generosity creates magic: “Frozen” songwriters Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez 42:58

2+ y ago42:58

42:58

Finding the right collaborator, and growing together, is a creative feat. While songwriting duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez were writing the iconic songs to "Frozen," they discovered the key ingredient to a successful and lasting collaboration: generosity. Kristen and Robert offer insight on how to be a generous collaborator — from not …

1
Replenish your sense of meaning: Musician Kayhan Kalhor on “Silent City" 35:52

2+ y ago35:52

35:52

Musician Kayhan Kalhor shares the story of composing and performing “Silent City,” his epic 25-minute piece for the kamancheh (Persian spiked fiddle) and ensemble. It’s a specific story about writing music to memorialize a devastating event, the massacre of innocents in Halabja, Iraq. But the takeaway is universal: When life feels too much to bear,…

1
Find what you need to fuel your work: Mark Bradford’s “Unicorn Tapestries” 35:34

2+ y ago35:34

35:34

Deep in the pandemic, visual artist Mark Bradford began work on an epic series called “The Unicorn Tapestries.” It’s inspired by the iconic medieval work of the same name, but created with everyday materials that speak to Mark’s experience: comic book papers, caulk, and other materials from the hardware store, layered and glued and then scratched a…

1
Commit to your best work (always!): Novelist Ann Patchett on “The Dutch House” 36:33

2+ y ago36:33

36:33

When Ann Patchett sat down to read through her first draft of The Dutch House, she realized she had made a terrible mistake. A wrong turn, on page 36, sent the entire rest of the novel careening down the wrong path. So what’d she do? Deleted it and started over. Sometimes, committing to doing your very best work means destroying it and going again.…

1
How to recover your creative voice: Comedian Patton Oswalt on “Annihilation” & “I Love Everything” 39:55

2+ y ago39:55

39:55

What do you do when you fear you’ve lost touch with your creative voice? You let yourself feel it, and then open yourself up to inspiration. When comedian Patton Oswalt suddenly lost his wife, he also feared he would lose himself. As he processes his grief, Patton takes us on the journey of finding his voice again, through the making of two very di…

1
5 ways to get creatively unstuck 20:08

2+ y ago20:08

20:08

You hit a creative dead end. You’re lost in the forest of thought. Let’s face it: you’re stuck. But getting stuck is part of the creative journey. We hear it in every story on this show. So today, we’ve chosen our 5 favorite strategies on how to regain your creative momentum, and get unstuck. Featuring Jurassic Park book designer Chip Kidd, Apollo …

1
#7 China and Digital Standard-setting 44:27

3y ago44:27

44:27

In this month's episode of the China Smart State Podcast, Rogier and Linda interview Tim Rühlig about Chinese policies on digital standard-setting. Rühlig is a research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), and is the author of China's Foreign Policy Contradictions (2022). Recently, his research has focused on Chinese policies o…

1
#6 Tech Investment and Finance in China 46:48

3y ago46:48

46:48

This month on the China Smart State Podcast, Rogier talks with Rui Ma about tech investment in China. Rui has over fifteen years of experience in investment banking and venture capital finance, and spent eight of those years working across multiple industries including real estate and media as well as technology in Shanghai and Beijing. She is curr…

1
#5 The Rise of China's Semiconductor Industry 49:11

3y ago49:11

49:11

This month on the China Smart State Podcast, Rogier chats with John Lee about semiconductors. John Lee is the director of East-West Futures, a consulting firm focusing on the global impacts of China’s digital technology industries and cyberspace governance system. Previously, John worked as a senior analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studi…

1
#4 China and the Industrial Revolution 4.0 43:58

3+ y ago43:58

43:58

This month's guest on The China Smart State Podcast is Tai Wei Lim, associate professor at Soka University in Japan, as well as adjunct research fellow at the National University of Singapore East Asian Institute. He is a historian and area-studies specialist whose research focuses on contemporary China and Japan. He also recently published a book …

1
#3 Smart Cities - Xiong'an New Area 28:15

3+ y ago28:15

28:15

This month on the China Smart State Podcast, Rogier Creemers and co-host Linda van der Horst chat to Fatoumata Diallo about Chinese smart cities. Fatoumata Diallo is a project manager and research fellow at ISDP’s Stockholm China Center and her research focuses Chinese domestic politics, digital urbanization and China’s foreign policy. Today they d…

1
#2 Smart Courts 35:13

3+ y ago35:13

35:13

This month on the China Smart State Podcast, Rogier Creemers and co-host Straton Papagianneas chat to Rachel Stern about the use of big data and artificial intelligence in Chinese courts. Rachel Stern is a Professor of Law and Political Science at Berkeley University, where she currently holds the Pamela P. Fong and Family Distinguished Chair in Ch…

1
#1 China's Cyber Diplomacy 36:02

3+ y ago36:02

36:02

"This month on the China Smart State Podcast, Rogier Creemers and Linda van der Horst are joined by Nigel Inkster, Senior Adviser on Cyber Security and China at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and Camino Kavanagh, visiting senior fellow at King’s college London as well as a member of the UN advisory support team to the Chairs of …

1
Be utterly honest: Musician Ben Folds on “Whatever and Ever Amen” 38:35

4y ago38:35

38:35

Capturing an honest moment is one of the riskiest ways to create. But the results are real, and they stand the test of time. As musician Ben Folds tells the story of creating his breakout album “Whatever and Ever Amen” with the Ben Folds Five, you’ll hear a very specific story about a rock band recording an album in a house, instead of a studio, wi…

1
How to spark others: Yo-Yo Ma on the Silk Road Project 55:42

4y ago55:42

55:42

The Silk Road Project was an impossibly ambitious, creatively expansive idea to not only create a category of music that had never been heard before, but also create ensembles to perform it, and audiences who were hungry to hear it. How did Yo-Yo Ma build this vision? He knew from the beginning that it wasn’t about him. You'll hear in the episode f…

1
Stick with it: "The Queen's Gambit" producers Allan Scott and Bill Horberg 34:19

4y ago34:19

34:19

When you fall in love with a project, stay with it – for as many years as necessary. Its time will come. When screenwriter Allan Scott acquired the film rights to the Walter Tevis novel “The Queen’s Gambit,” he couldn’t have imagined it would take almost 30 years to get that movie made. Allan, along with executive producer Bill Horberg, talk about …

1
Trust your instinct: Salsa legend Rubén Blades on the iconic song “Pedro Navaja” 41:53

4y ago41:53

41:53

“It’s too long. It’s too sad. It’s not danceable.” Just some of the feedback salsa legend Rubén Blades got from DJs and record labels about his iconic song "Pedro Navaja" on the album "Siembra," which went on to sell 25m copies. That’s more than the Beatles' "White Album." And his story of creating this album with Willie Colón is a testament to thr…

1
Stay authentic to yourself: Randall Park on making "Always Be My Maybe" 35:59

4y ago35:59

35:59

How do you create something an audience will love? Start with everything YOU love. Actor Randall Park ("Veep," "Fresh Off the Boat," "WandaVision"…) tells the story of a passion project that's become a beloved repeat-watch: the 2019 Netflix movie "Always Be My Maybe." It all started as a tossed-off remark by his friend Ali Wong: What if we made a r…

1
Create the conditions for your own creativity: Yaa Gyasi on "Transcendent Kingdom" 23:33

4y ago23:33

23:33

To make a creative leap, get to know your creative self. After publishing a blockbuster first novel, "Homegoing," followed by a year of touring (and trying to write in hotel rooms), author Yaa Gyasi realized she needed two things to reconnect with her next story: space and time. She shares the creation process of "Transcendent Kingdom" : how she go…

1
Play to an elevated purpose: Wynton Marsalis on "The Democracy! Suite" 29:26

4y ago29:26

29:26

“Everything you do in the arts gives meaning to your way of life." In a year of pandemic, racial reckoning, and threats to democracy, Wynton Marsalis creates a seven-song cycle that imagines how artists can shape the times we live in. As he tells us the story of creating "The Democracy! Suite," he teaches unforgettable lessons about collaboration, …

1
Cultivate a child's sense of wonder: "Knives Out" director Rian Johnson 38:46

4y ago38:46

38:46

How do you create deeply imaginative work? There’s a method behind the magic. As Rian Johnson (Last Jedi, Looper, Brick) takes us on the journey of joyfully reinventing the murder-mystery, you’ll hear the way he draws on childhood memories (like watching Agatha Christie movies in his grandparents' rambling old house) to inspire his work. You’ll als…

1
How to build your creative vision: Photographer Stephen Wilkes on the 2021 Inauguration Photo 33:06

4y ago33:06

33:06

Making art is a distillation of all your life experiences – from the half-remembered images from your childhood to your fascination with what's happening around you right now. Photographer Stephen Wilkes developed his signature Day to Night images to share his passion for how time passes – and soon found that they also helped him explore everything…

1
Great collabs start with trust: Apollo Theater’s Kamilah Forbes on “Between the World and Me” 37:46

4y ago37:46

37:46

"I want to make this into theater, in a way that’s never been done before." When Kamilah Forbes first reads "Between the World and Me," by her friend Ta-Nehisi Coates, she's moved, shaken, gutted by its truth and beauty. She dreams of presenting it at Harlem's Apollo Theater, a legendary space for Black art and excellence. First step: convince Ta-N…

1
Creativity starts with play: Designer Thomas Heatherwick on NYC's The Vessel 35:14

4+ y ago35:14

35:14

How do you change the creative brief? You start with play. The designer Thomas Heatherwick was asked to create a monumental public work for the plaza of vast new development in the heart of Manhattan. The expected route would be to copy what’s worked before on other plazas in other cities – a statue, a fountain. But Heatherwick knew he had to push …

1
Turn crisis into art: Choreographer Bill T. Jones on “Afterwardsness," his pandemic masterpiece 43:29

4+ y ago43:29

43:29

When faced with a crisis, how do you move forward? Sometimes, you look backward first. It’s March 2020, and legendary choreographer Bill T. Jones is weeks away from a world premiere, when his company is forced into lockdown. All seems lost. But what comes next paves the way for a transcendent performance at the Park Avenue Armory called “Afterwards…

1
Turn memory into art: Isabel Allende on “The House of the Spirits” 38:09

4+ y ago38:09

38:09

How do you write the stories of your life? Any time, any place, any order. Isabel Allende was 39, and a refugee from her native Chile, when she started writing a letter to her dying grandfather – recounting the family stories he'd told her – of love, loss, memory, magic. This letter evolved into her first novel, the beloved epic "The House of the S…

1
How to find inspiration: Chip Kidd on the "Jurassic Park" book cover 32:43

4+ y ago32:43

32:43

What do you do when you’re stuck? Something else. Designer Chip Kidd got a dream assignment: Create the book cover for a soon-to-be-blockbuster: Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. Oh, and make it iconic. When the pressure to perform is that high, it's easy to get creatively paralyzed. Chip recounts exactly how he got started and how he got unstuck —…

1
How to begin: Susan Orlean on "The Orchid Thief" 45:40

4+ y ago45:40

45:40

How do you move past that "wobbly moment" in your creative journey? Just move. From the moment she heard about it, Susan Orlean knew she had to tell the story of "The Orchid Thief" – a wild, true story of obsession set in the swamps of Florida. But somewhere deep in the telling, she risks losing her own footing. Spark & Fire follows Susan as she pu…

1
Oscar winner Pixar's Kemp Powers on "Soul": The best person for the project 31:50

4+ y ago31:50

31:50

How do you create an authentic character? Start with your authentic self. When Kemp Powers joined the writers' room at Pixar, he found a story waiting to be told ... anchored within his own story. Spark & Fire follows Kemp on his own hero's journey of co-writing and co-directing Soul, Pixar's first film with a Black protagonist, from his first trip…

1
Lynn "FREE ROSS" Ulbritch - The True Story about SILK ROAD 42:54

5y ago42:54

42:54

Hello my HODLER's!!Thank you ALL for continuing to follow me and the interviews and messages I have around crypto and the world in general!In this episode we talk with Lynn Ulbritch, a strong, lovely and persistent mother, fighting for the freedom of her son, Ross Ulbritch, from the wrongful conviction connected to Silk Road.Listen in to hear all t…

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