Artificial intelligence is evolving at an unprecedented pace—what does that mean for the future of technology, venture capital, business, and even our understanding of ourselves? Award-winning journalist and writer Anil Ananthaswamy joins us for our latest episode to discuss his latest book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI . Anil helps us explore the journey and many breakthroughs that have propelled machine learning from simple perceptrons to the sophisticated algorithms shaping today’s AI revolution, powering GPT and other models. The discussion aims to demystify some of the underlying math that powers modern machine learning to help everyone grasp this technology impacting our lives, even if your last math class was in high school. Anil walks us through the power of scaling laws, the shift from training to inference optimization, and the debate among AI’s pioneers about the road to AGI—should we be concerned, or are we still missing key pieces of the puzzle? The conversation also delves into AI’s philosophical implications—could understanding how machines learn help us better understand ourselves? And what challenges remain before AI systems can truly operate with agency? If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Sign up for our newsletter at techsurgepodcast.com for exclusive insights and updates on upcoming TechSurge Live Summits. Links: Read Why Machines Learn, Anil’s latest book on the math behind AI https://www.amazon.com/Why-Machines-Learn-Elegant-Behind/dp/0593185749 Learn more about Anil Ananthaswamy’s work and writing https://anilananthaswamy.com/ Watch Anil Ananthaswamy’s TED Talk on AI and intelligence https://www.ted.com/speakers/anil_ananthaswamy Discover the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship that shaped Anil’s AI research https://ksj.mit.edu/ Understand the Perceptron, the foundation of neural networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron Read about the Perceptron Convergence Theorem and its significance https://www.nature.com/articles/323533a0…
Council Bluffs’ location has put the town into contact with a lot of history. Lewis and Clark and the Mormon pilgrims came through, as did the westbound pioneers on the Oregon and California Trails. Abraham Lincoln designated the town as milepost zero for the transcontinental railroad. The first coast-to-coast automobile trip passed through and later the first transcontinental highway. Council Bluffs was the birthplace of Omaha and first war-time mobile hospital. It also boasted the state’s first nursing school and FM radio station as well as the largest rotary cell jail ever built. This all created a lot of what we call history-- but at the time it wasn’t intended that way at all. It was just normal people finding innovative ways to solve problems, inventing the future one day at a time. And that has made for some really interesting tales that we intend to explore in this podcast series.
Council Bluffs’ location has put the town into contact with a lot of history. Lewis and Clark and the Mormon pilgrims came through, as did the westbound pioneers on the Oregon and California Trails. Abraham Lincoln designated the town as milepost zero for the transcontinental railroad. The first coast-to-coast automobile trip passed through and later the first transcontinental highway. Council Bluffs was the birthplace of Omaha and first war-time mobile hospital. It also boasted the state’s first nursing school and FM radio station as well as the largest rotary cell jail ever built. This all created a lot of what we call history-- but at the time it wasn’t intended that way at all. It was just normal people finding innovative ways to solve problems, inventing the future one day at a time. And that has made for some really interesting tales that we intend to explore in this podcast series.
Amelia Bloomer was born in New York but spent most of her adult life in Council Bluffs. Her name is associated with a garment worn by women and women’s rights, but there’s a lot more to the story than that. Amelia Bloomer dedicated her life to righting social wrongs, and when she arrived in Council Bluffs in 1855 she found a town that could very definitely benefit from her services. In this episode Dr. Warner talks with writer and researcher Sara Catterall about Amelia Bloomer’s very significant impact on social issues that included temperance, abolition, equal rights, and the 19th Amendment. For more information about Sara Catterall’s book, “Amelia Bloomer: Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-Fashion Icon” go to https://beltpublishing.com/products/amelia-bloomer-journalist-suffragist-anti-fashion-icon Our podcast guest, Sara, Catterall, is a writer with a Drama degree from NYU and an MLIS from Syracuse University. She was born in Ankara and grew up in South Minneapolis. She has worked as a librarian at Cornell University, as a reviewer and interviewer for Shelf Awareness, and as a professional book indexer. Her work has been published in the NEH’s Humanities magazine and The Sun magazine, and she co-authored Ottoman Dress and Design in the West: A Visual History of Cultural Exchange. She lives with her family near Ithaca, New York. The podcast was recorded via Zoom.…
This episode continues the story of Mobile Hospital No, 1, also known as Unit K or the Council Bluffs Unit in World War I. In this episode writer/researcher Brian Mainwaring recounts events such as an early attempt to break up Unit K, its training and observation period with the British military, the full integration of Unit K’s roster into Mobile No. 1, preparation of the hospital’s personnel and inventory for its first full set-up and deployment there in mid-1918, and an incident in which a quartet of the officers discovered the rest of the group had been transferred ahead without them.…
It was one of the deadliest conflicts of all time-- new weaponry resulted in a scale and severity of injuries that was unprecedented. And the trauma of transporting these severely wounded to base hospitals became the weak link in the treatment chain. Relief came in the form of a medical unit from over 4,500 miles away; Mobile Hospital #1, aka Unit K, the Council Bluffs Unit, commanded by a former Council Bluffs mayor. Almost as astonishing as the novel concept of bringing care to the wounded on the battlefield was, the fact this milestone of military medicine pioneered by local doctors, nurses and support staff is today virtually unknown to Council Bluffs residents is even more surprising. This podcast is first in a series called “Invisible Excellence,” which will explore the history of this remarkable unit. Our guest is local writer and researcher, Brian Mainwaring. Comments, questions, or information about WWI medicine from your family lore are all encouraged. You can contact us at information@TheHistoricalSociety.org. We would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following: Historical Society of Pottawattamie County Jim McMullen and Kandis Kole-Skank of the Pottawattamie County Genealogical Society Dr. David Holcomb Dr. James Knott The reference department at the Council Bluffs Public Library References for more information: "Hospital No. 1 Won War Cross," Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil, July 26, 1936 "Glimpsing Modernity: Military Medicine in WWI," Chapter Five, by WIlliam Montgomery, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016 "Unit K the First MASH Unit," Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil, May 20, 2016 "Iowa Hospital Corps Moved with WWI," Omaha World Herald, July 2, 2017 "Brief Hospital of Mobile Hospital No. 1," Journal of the Iowa State Medical Association, April 1920 "One Hundred Years of Iowa Medicine," Iowa State Medical Association, 1950 "The Great War: One Medic's Diary," Bob Reilly, Creighton University Magazine, Summer, 2001 "Joseph Marshall Flint," Samuel Clark Harvey, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine , March, 1945…
In this episode podcast host Richard Warner looks at the distribution of Council Bluffs' squirrel population, why they are black, how rare they are, some of the local traditions and laws regarding them, and how the Pottawattamie County jail ended up with that name. Comments and questions are welcome! You can reach us via email at Information@TheHistoricalSociety.org.…
Things out of history aren’t always what they appear. Historic figures that seem good or bad were actually every bit as complicated as we are. Even statues and monuments may have been designed to send messages other than what seems apparent. Historic General Dodge House director Tom Emmett tackles these complicated issues head on by using an incident from the Civil War that seemingly plagued General Dodge the rest of his life.…
This episode was recorded March 5, 2023 at Prairie Crossing Winery https://www.prairiecrossingwine.com. The winery is located near Treynor, Iowa, just south of state highway 92. In the episode Mr. Gray makes reference to the Grape Growers Association and its role in making southwest Iowa a strong force in in the grape industry. You can find some photos of Prairie Crossing Winery and a brief history of the Association at https://sites.google.com/thehistoricalsociety.org/grape-growers/home.…
Comments and questions are always welcome. Contact the Historical Society at information@TheHistoricalSociety.org. If you are interested in Council Bluffs history be sure to check our our local history videos. Search for Council Bluffs Revealed in the YouTube search bar. The Society also hosts a Facebook page called Council Bluffs Revealed.…
Kat Slaughter is Museums Director for the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County. She studied at the University of Wyoming, graduating in 2016 with a Bachelor's degree of History and Anthropology with an emphasis in museum studies. Troy Stolp holds a BA from Iowa State University in Anthropology and Religious Studies, a BA from Buena Vista University in History, and an MA from UNO in History. Troy is a teacher at Lewis Central.…
The book "Lost Restaurants of Omaha" is available at The Bookworm at 2501 S. 90th in Omaha as well as Barnes & Noble at Oak View. Stay up-to-date on restaurants and things to do in the area by following Kim Reiner: Founder and owner of Oh My! Omaha - Exploring Omaha & Beyond and Let's Go Iowa Follow me on Facebook , Twitter and see the pretty pictures on Instagram Let's pin stuff we'll never do! Follow me on Pinterest…
If getting there is good, getting there faster is even better, right? That seems to be the conventional wisdom, as machines are pushed to and nudged beyond their limits. It takes some brave people to test those machines, and at least on a couple of occasions Council Bluffs men were ready to accept the challenge. This podcast tells the tale of O.J. Mitchell and James Bernard Verdin, two locals that set world speed records, one on land, the other in the air.…
Patrick Toscano grew up in Council Bluffs and made law enforcement his career. In this podcast he explains how things have changed during his decades of police work and shares some of the interesting incidents he encountered. The podcast title is taken from the open of the old "Adam 12" television show in which the dispatcher informs the officers there is a 2-11 in progress, "handle code 3." The officers switch on the lights and siren, and race to the scene.…
In this episode Kelli Bello, production manager of Council Bluffs' Firehouse Letterpress, explains how Omaha became the center of movie marketing and distribution, how film advertising and the technology used to create it changed over time, and how a good amount of the printing and cinematic archival material found its way to Council Bluffs. Firehouse Letterpress owner Larry Richling describes the collection and how he got interested in putting it together. To view some examples of the items mentioned in the podcast and the 1950 documentary about the printing process: https://www.thehistoricalsociety.org/movies.html Questions, comments and suggestions for podcast guests or topics are always welcome! You can contact us at information@TheHistoricalSociety.org. The Society also has a YouTube channel you may enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2BijwKxeirRtL7QLnyfMzg…
John G. Woodward wasn't the first to use little people in advertising, but may well have contributed to what became a popular trend for the next couple of decades. Buster Brown shoes had adopted a comic strip character as their advertising image a few years earlier and hired little people to play Buster in tours around the country. This came at the time when the trend was to introduce novelty into advertising to attract consumer attention in what was becoming the highly competitive world of marketing. Woodward's approach was different in that the company treated the Bregants with respect. What the company called "the lightest weight and best proportioned couple in the world" were photographed in adult poses and portrayed as sophisticated, unlike Little Oscar the Chef of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile or Sunshine Bakers promoting "the cutest midgets you ever saw." The Bregant's custom-made home was restored by Preserve Council Bluffs and is open for tours. Find more information about the house: https://sites.google.com/thehistoricalsociety.org/pcb/home/bregant-house…
مرحبًا بك في مشغل أف ام!
يقوم برنامج مشغل أف أم بمسح الويب للحصول على بودكاست عالية الجودة لتستمتع بها الآن. إنه أفضل تطبيق بودكاست ويعمل على أجهزة اندرويد والأيفون والويب. قم بالتسجيل لمزامنة الاشتراكات عبر الأجهزة.