12 December 2016

Is it worth going to Mars?

These are among the interesting topics my friend and colleague Dirk Primbs and I are debating on in a podcast series that we are launching very soon. Head over to  http://www.2debate.net to sign up and be notified as soon as we release a new episode. (Update: we're live on iTunes).

These topics are not only interesting but directly refer to recent news: Elon Musk’s very real project to colonise Mars with a million inhabitants over the next decades; election polls which seemingly have not predicted and possibly influenced Brexit and Trump’s election; or Zappos, this startup acquired by Amazon, which has implemented “holacracy”, effectively replacing hierarchy with self-management.

I am having a lot of fun recording those debates (a dozen episodes thus far) – you can probably tell if you watch the teaser videos (https://goo.gl/JbaCwY and https://goo.gl/nlr47k). Dirk and I focus on current issues pertaining to the world of technology, business and politics. The idea is to challenge assumptions over 12 minutes of a structured Oxford-style debate. In fact, we challenge our very own assumptions, since we assign sides by the flip of a coin and we then defend our positions very seriously and passionately.

There are many more things I could write about this project: how it’s one of many personal projects I have in store, how Dirk is already an active podcaster (he hosts a daily podcast in German), how we decided to work on this together (and Dirk is a great sparring partner), how we are having fun creating memes and teaser videos, how this project is being professionally managed behind the scenes – all this in our spare time. Stay tuned for more details. In the meantime, the best thing you can do is sign up on http://www.2debate.net – and if you are truly curious and interested to give us feedback, I can give you exclusive access to the first podcast: simply let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading!