A graduate in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a PhD in Fine Arts from Tsukuba, Japan, John Maeda is a founder of the Aesthetics and Computing Group at MIT Media Lab.

He is the world's most popular contemporary philosopher. Michael Sandel, Professor at Harvard University and 2018 Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, aims to put civic education on the table and connect philosophy with our daily lives. Also on this podcast.

Sara Kuburic is a Serbian-Canadian therapist, researcher and writer, also popularly known as the online millennial therapist. Over the past few years, Sara has grown exponentially in popularity and recognition as a high-level therapist with expertise in psychology. Now, Kuburic is a columnist at USA Today, where she shares tips and ideas about personal life and well-being.

Judit Polgár is a retired Hungarian chess player. She is considered the best female chess player in history. In 1991 she won the International Grand Master title at the age of 15 years and four months, thus becoming the youngest person to obtain that title at the time and breaking the record previously held by former World Champion Bobby Fischer.

Hadi Partovi is the founder of Code.org, a non-profit educational organization that has developed computer science classes that reach 30% of U.S. students. In addition, he has launched the global 'Hour of Code' movement, reaching millions of students in every country in the world.

On June 24, 1995, Johannesburg's Ellis Park stadium witnessed “one of the most glorious moments in politics and sport of the 20th century”. South African President Nelson Mandela, elected a year earlier in his country's first democratic elections, donned the jersey of the captain of the national rugby team, Francois Pienaar, and walked onto the pitch to greet each member of the team, which was playing in the World Cup final that day. The gesture could have cost Madiba dearly - rugby was the sport of the Afrikaners. ‘Invictus’, a film based on John Carlin's book “The Human Factor”, tells the story.

The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (FMBBVA) is celebrating its anniversary. It was founded by BBVA in 2007 as a non-profit organization in the framework of the bank’s corporate social responsibility. With a €200 million endowment, FMBBVA aims to support people in situations of vulnerability with productive activities. In commemoration of this milestone, we spoke with Javier M. Flores, who has been the CEO of the foundation since 2010. With a law degree and MBA from the University of Houston (Texas, U.S.), he is in charge of strategy, executive management and supervision of the microfinance institutions in Latin America.

Alison Gopnik is an American Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.

Marine biologist, environmental activist and ‘slow travel’ advocate, the British sustainability guru maintains that the most urgent aspect of the climate crisis is questioning the mechanisms of progress -- and identifying all of its traps.

Keith Ferrazzi is the world’s top expert in the development of professional human relationships. Both Forbes and Inc. regard him as one of the world’s most «connected» people.

One day, during a talk, she conducted a simple experiment: she asked a group of scholars to close their eyes and point south-eastwards. There were fingers pointed in every posible direction. However, Lera Boroditsky knew that if she asked the same question to a girl from an Aboriginal community in Australia she would point her finger in the right direction.

Canadian experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist, writer and professor at Harvard College, Steven Pinker is known for his vigorous and far-reaching advocacy of evolutionary psychology and computational theory of the mind.

Jessica Grose is a novelist and essayist. Her works of non-fiction have appeared in the The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine and The Paris Review Daily, among other publications.  She has a Master´s degree in creative writing from The New School, a Master's degree in cultural reporting and criticism from New York University and a Bachelor's in anthropology from Princeton University. Grose published her debut novel, Hysteria, in 2020.

Doug Lemov is the founder of Uncommon Schools. Rare are the elementary schools that use their own teaching methodology based on values such as respect, hard work and kindness so that students love school from the beginning.

James M. Lang is a Professor of English and the Director of the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in Worcester, MA. He is the author of six books, the most recent of which are Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It, Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty, and On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching.

Writer Emily Esfahani Smith draws on psychology, philosophy and literature to write about the human experience—why we are the way we are and how we can find grace and meaning in a world that is full of suffering.

Vinton Cerf is considered by many as the father of the Internet. He was the founding president of the Internet Society. With the Internet, Vinton Cerf completely revolutionized information transmission processes, allowing the unrestricted flow of information around the world.

BBVA USA frequently leads the banking industry in digital transformation, rolling out award-winning products, and collaborating with fintechs and tech giants to bring a new, convenient age of banking to its clients.

Kai-Fu Lee is a Taiwanese-born American businessman and writer, regarded as one of the world's top AI experts.  He graduated from Columbia University in computer science, and earned a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, where, as part of his thesis, he completed what is considered the first independent speech recognition system: Sphinx.

BBVA USA might don a logo steep in shades of blue, but make no mistake, over the past few years, the bank has turned its attention to a very green topic.

Siri Hustvedt has published works of fiction, essays, poetry and academic articles. Her work is underpinned by feminism, art, and science.

While the pandemic created by the novel COVID-19 develops and sends Americans down an unprecedented path, fraudsters are jumping at the chance to capitalize on that uncertainty.

The future will never look the same. If one were to scour news articles and studies around the current health situation, one will find that a good portion of medical experts will convey this concept. It’s difficult to say what the future will look like in multiple facets of society, but it’s safe to say that the ripple effects will be prominent, at least in the beginning.

Tali Sharot is the director of the Affective Brain Lab. She is a professor of cognitive neuroscience in the Experimental Psychology department at University College London and a senior research fellow at the Wellcome Trust.

Susan Cain is a U.S writer and author of the best seller, ‘Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.’ Her work revolutionized our concept about personality, that argues that modern, Western culture misinterprets and undervalues the skills and traits of introverts.

Lisa Damour is an american psychologist and writer specializing in the development of adolescent and young women. Her first New York Times best seller, Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood focuses on the seven distinct developmental stages that girls go through as they grow into adults.

Sonja Lyubomirsky received her PhD in social psychology from Stanford University and is currently Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside.