Many people have equated Stewart Brand to the mythical "World's Most Interesting Man," who was featured for years in those Dos Equis commercials. Enough people that the comparison's a bit of a cliché. But like many clichés, there is something to it.
Stewart was among the most culturally catalytic people in the turbulent years of the late 1960s – although back then, he did a lot of his catalyzing behind the scenes. He went on to become a rather visible founding figure of the environmental movement of the early 70s. Later, he created one of the earliest and most influential online communities, which he named The Well. He convened history's first hacker's conference, then later co-founded one of the world's premiere centers of truly long-term thinking. He's still running that today, and is also helping the renowned bioengineer and genomicist George Church resurrect extinct species, like the wooly mammoth.
If this makes you think Stewart might be something of a historic figure, you're not alone. He showed up for his interview at my apartment with a production crew, who were filming a documentary about his life. Meanwhile John Markoff – who for decades at the NYT was among the world's most influential and well-regarded tech journalists – is writing a biography about Stewart.
For the same reasons that Stewart attracts this sort of attention, I'm taking an unusual approach to this episode. Rather than focusing solely on a single deep and complex aspect of his work, Stewart and I speak broadly about the sweep of his experiences, and the unique perspective they've given him on technology, the environment, and our prospects of navigating the coming century.
The interview is right here:
If you enjoy this interview, please consider checking out The After On Podcast. I publish new episodes every month – and my archive features dozens of unhurried conversations with world-class thinkers, founders, and scientists. Their fields include neuroscience, synthetic biology, quantum computing, space archaeology (seriously – it's a thing!) and much more.
Image: Door of Perception
