Finding Genius Podcast

Join us in this episode as Erai Beckmann shares his thoughts on blockchain, artificial intelligence, global commerce, and the potential for emerging technologies to expand access to the financial system. As Erai puts it, "We think the first step towards global peace is to allow financial access to those that don't yet have it." That idea sits at the center of Peace Through Trade (PTT), the blockchain project he is a founding partner of and is helping build around peer-to-peer commerce, digital trade, and greater economic participation.
Peace Through Trade is a regulation-focused Layer-1 Proof-of-Work blockchain ecosystem designed to work alongside governments and existing financial structures rather than outside them. Erai's approach to Web3 is shaped by a career spent building in emerging and highly regulated industries, where he learned that new technologies are more likely to achieve lasting adoption when regulation is addressed from the beginning.
Click play to find out:
●       How blockchain could expand access to global commerce and financial services.
●       Why Erai connects economic participation with greater international cooperation.
●       The role regulation may play in bringing blockchain into mainstream use.
●       How AI, Web3, and digital trade could intersect in the future.
Before Peace Through Trade, Erai led public companies and co-founded a pharmaceutical venture focused on cannabinoid-based products in Latin America. He was involved in lobbying and legislative efforts surrounding medical cannabinoid access in Brazil, an experience that helped shape his regulation-first philosophy. Today, he applies that same thinking to blockchain: understand the rules, build infrastructure capable of operating within them, and focus on practical use beyond speculation.
 Connect with Erai:
 Peace Through Trade
 Personal Website
 LinkedIn

Could a new generation of therapies eventually reproduce some of the effects we associate with diet and exercise? In this episode, we connect with Dr. Adam Dorr to discuss the rapid evolution of GLP-1 medications and the possibility that combining fat-loss drugs with emerging myostatin- and activin-blocking therapies could change how we think about weight, muscle mass, metabolic health, and healthy aging.
 Adam is the Director of Research at RethinkX, an independent think tank focused on technology-driven disruption. As an environmental social scientist and technology theorist, he approaches healthcare through the same systems lens RethinkX has applied to energy, transportation, and food.
 Adam's recent work explores what RethinkX calls "Health Optimizer Therapies," or HOTs: combinations of treatments that may eventually target fat loss, muscle preservation or gain, metabolic health, and other aspects of physical well-being at the same time. He describes this convergence as moving medicine closer to a long-pursued idea: something resembling diet and exercise in a bottle…
 This conversation explores: 
●       Why GLP-1 medications could represent more than a weight-loss trend.
●       The potential role of myostatin and activin inhibition in preserving or increasing muscle.
●       What could happen when fat-loss and muscle-building therapies are combined.
●       Why RethinkX views these technologies as part of a broader healthcare disruption.
 Adam holds a PhD from UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs and an MS from the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. He has spent much of his career studying how rapidly improving technologies move from niche innovations to forces that can transform entire sectors.
 Connect with Adam:
 RethinkX
 Rethinking Health: The Health Optimizer Therapy Disruption
X

In today's episode, Chris Schneider joins us to discuss the systems, financial habits, and leadership decisions that can help independent bar owners build stronger and more sustainable businesses…
Chris is the founder of The Bar Business and host of The Bar Business Podcast. He has experience in bar ownership, small-business bookkeeping, hospitality education, and coaching. This diverse background showed him why some operators struggle while others build more efficient, profitable businesses. Across those roles, he saw a consistent pattern: the strongest operators understand their numbers, rely on repeatable systems, and make decisions based on more than instinct alone.
Hit play to find out:
●       The importance of creating a special dining and drinking experience.
●       Why many independent bars struggle to achieve consistent profitability.
●       The financial numbers bar owners should be paying attention to.
●       How menu engineering and pricing influence the bottom line.
Chris approaches bar management through his MCC Framework: Mindset, Concept, and Culture. This helps owners view their bar as a business that can be measured, improved, and scaled. He is also the author of How to Make Top-Shelf Profits in the Bar Business and Menus That Sell. Through his coaching and more than 200 episodes of The Bar Business Podcast, Chris helps independent bar owners create businesses that are more profitable, organized, and less dependent on their constant presence.
Connect with Chris:
The Bar Business
The Bar Business Podcast
Instagram

What happens when artificial intelligence moves beyond processing information and begins interpreting human behavior, emotion, intent, and risk?
In this episode, we explore The AI Instinct with Rana Gujral, AI entrepreneur, CEO of Behavioral Signals, and author of The AI Instinct: The Future of AI and Human Decision-Making, released August 31, 2026.
Rana brings a unique perspective shaped by years at the intersection of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, voice technology, and human behavior. His work explores how AI can analyze signals such as tone, emotion, intent, and risk—and what happens when these capabilities begin influencing the decisions people make.
In this wide-ranging conversation, we explore:
• How AI is changing the way humans make decisions
• The relationship between artificial intelligence and human cognition
• What Cognitive AI can reveal about emotion, intent, and behavior
• How voice and behavioral signals can help identify risk and understand human intent
• The evolution of today's AI systems toward AGI and more advanced forms of intelligence
• What the future of human-AI decision-making could look like
As CEO of Behavioral Signals, Rana works on AI systems that analyze speech and behavioral signals to help organizations understand intent, emotion, and risk. His career spans technology entrepreneurship, product innovation at Logitech, AI, robotics, cybersecurity, and voice intelligence.
If you're interested in the future of AI, human behavior, cognitive intelligence, voice technology, and the increasingly complex relationship between humans and machines, this conversation offers a fascinating look at where intelligence may be heading next.
Connect with Rana Gujral:
Personal Website: https://ranagujral.com/about
Book: The AI Instinct: The Future of AI and Human Decision-Making
Behavioral Signals: https://behavioralsignals.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ranagujral/
#ArtificialIntelligence #CognitiveAI #VoiceAI #HumanAI #FutureOfAI #AIInnovation #ConversationalAI #VoiceTechnology #MachineLearning #AIResearch #BehavioralAI #AILeadership #Deepfakes #DigitalTrust #FindingGenius

In this episode, we are joined by Gary Melnick, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & the Smithsonian and the Principal Investigator of NASA's Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite. Today, we discuss the latest developments in lunar exploration and what the Artemis 2 mission could mean for the future of human spaceflight…
With decades of experience working on major NASA missions and space-based observatories, Gary offers insight into how modern space exploration differs from earlier missions and where the Artemis program could take us next.
This podcast explores:
The goals and significance of the Artemis 2 mission.

What the latest lunar missions can teach us about future space exploration.

How modern spaceflight differs from the Apollo era.

Why spacecraft use gravitational slingshots when traveling between the Moon and Earth.

Gary is also involved with The Galileo Project, which applies systematic scientific methods to the search for potential evidence of extraterrestrial technological civilizations. His work spans astronomy, astrophysics, space-based observatories, and some of the most ambitious questions in modern science.
What could the Artemis 2 mission mean for the future of lunar exploration and human spaceflight? Listen now as Gary Melnick shares his insights into the mission, NASA's plans for the Moon, and where space exploration could go from here.
Connect with Gary:
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
The Galileo Project
🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/30PvU9C 
🛍️ Recommended Books from this Episode
📖 A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts – An immersive account of NASA's Apollo missions, drawing on extensive research and astronaut interviews to bring the historic journeys to the Moon to life.
👉 Get it here
📘 Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void – A fascinating and entertaining look at the science, challenges, and unexpected realities of sending humans to live and work in space.
👉 Check it out
📙 The Right Stuff – Tom Wolfe's iconic account of the test pilots and astronauts who pushed the boundaries of aviation and became the pioneers of America's early space program.
👉 Explore it here
📕 Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon – Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin reflects on his journey from the Moon to life back on Earth, offering a personal perspective on space exploration and its lasting impact.
👉 Discover it here
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