Yuval Harari on the Modern World

Join us this Sunday, either in person or online, as we watch and discuss three videos of historian Yuval Noah Harari discussing significant issues of the modern world.

The first video, from May 23, 2025, is Harari on coping with the Trump eraーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS. Historian Harari speaks to NHK (a Japanese public broadcast service) about the rise of populism, exemplified by the reelection of Donald Trump as US president. You can pre-watch this 7-minute video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvAXqyWJxwg.

The second, Yuval Noah Harari on AI and Human Evolution | WSJ Leadership Institute is a June 12, 2025 WSJ (Wall Street Journal) Interview. Harari joins the WSJ Leadership Institute to examine, through his work on human evolution, ethics, and power, how AI is reshaping global institutions, executive decision-making, and our very concept of intelligence. You can pre-watch this 25-minute video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki5hosohNtQ.

The third video is Stupidity: A powerful force in human history from May 29, 2024 deals with the questions; are we in the midst of World War III? What's the role of fiction in human evolution? Why do we tend to overconsume food? Big or small, every detail in our behavior can be explained by looking at the past, from dietary choices to how we've used stories to advance. But if progress is narrative-driven, what comes next? In Yuval's take, he speaks on humanity's superpower, the paradox of wisdom and the relationship between government and war. You can pre-watch this 12-minute video at https://youtu.be/zvjcJsy51oc

Prof. Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and the bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, the series Sapiens: A Graphic History and Unstoppable Us, and Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. His books have sold 50 Million copies in 65 languages, and he is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals today.
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