#65: The Story Behind Love Conquers Fear: Brett Hurt’s Fireside Chat With Byron Reese — June 23, 2026

#65: The Story Behind Love Conquers Fear: Brett Hurt’s Fireside Chat With Byron Reese — June 23, 2026

Order the Book! ► ⁠http://loveconquersfear.org/book [http://loveconquersfear.org/book] What you’ll hear in this episode: - How “Love Conquers Fear” grew from Brett’s search for meaning, reality, and humanity’s future - The psychedelic journey that inspired the book’s message, structure, and deeper calling - Choosing love over fear as AI, quantum computing, robotics, and brain-computer interfaces accelerate - Consciousness, the soul, reincarnation, spiritual texts, and the deeper nature of reality - Scarcity thinking, othering, social media fear loops, nuclear weapons, and zero-sum power - Agency, compassion, and global cooperation as paths to an Age of Abundance for All - Meditation, ancient wisdom, and spiritual awakening as catalysts for transformation - Josh Baer’s legacy of agency, generosity, entrepreneurship, and Austin’s startup ecosystem About Love Conquers Fear: In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? These conversations are calls to action, awakening leaders everywhere to rise and help humanity choose the Light. Follow Brett Alexander Hurt on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretthurt/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/brettahurt Medium: https://databrett.medium.com/ Substack: https://brettahurt.substack.com/ Watch on: YouTube: http://tiny.cc/LCF-YT Spotify: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Spotify Listen on: Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Apple Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/LCF-Amazon About Byron Reese: Byron Reese is an author, speaker, futurist, and entrepreneur known for bringing a deeply philosophical lens to questions about AI, consciousness, progress, and human potential. Over more than two decades, he has built and sold multiple companies, written books including “The Fourth Age”, “Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think”, and “We Are Agora”, and spoken around the world about how emerging technologies may reshape work, education, society, and what it means to be human. His work is marked by curiosity, clarity, and a belief that humanity’s future can be better than its past. Timestamps: 0:00:00 — Preview 0:00:30 — Intro: Byron Reese, Josh Baer’s legacy, Amit Sharma 0:10:36 — Lifelong search to understand reality, Vedanta, David Judson 0:18:01 — Calling to write the book, existential questions, podcast, writing process  0:27:18 — Ancient spiritual texts, scarcity thinking, human agency, abundance, othering 0:34:13 — Unlimited energy, end of disease, broken constructs, global heart shift 0:45:03 — Human goodness, external accumulation, reincarnation, nuclear risk, awakening 0:56:37 — Hard moral choices, accountability, meditation, AI leadership, catalyzing change 1:14:27 — Open-source AI, AGI race, intentionality, decentralization, small acts of kindness 1:27:31 — Closing reflections Books mentioned in this episode: - The Fourth Age — Byron Reese - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams - Bhagavad Gita — Stephen Mitchell (tr.) - Tao Te Ching — Stephen Mitchell (tr.) - Governing Business & Relationships — Avula Parthasarathy - Awareness — Anthony de Mello - How to Surrender to God — David R. Hawkins Links: Capital Factory: https://capitalfactory.com/ [https://capitalfactory.com/] “Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine” doc: https://tinyurl.com/mw58x5vm [https://tinyurl.com/mw58x5vm] “Disclosure Day” film: https://tinyurl.com/4karfc2r [https://tinyurl.com/4karfc2r] David Judson on LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/y5p9nnwe [https://tinyurl.com/y5p9nnwe] Malala Yousafzai’s TED Talk: https://tinyurl.com/z2mp67ft [https://tinyurl.com/z2mp67ft] Dario Amodei’s essay “The Adolescence of Technology”: https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t [https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t] UN on global food insecurity: https://tinyurl.com/4v4dx5sm [https://tinyurl.com/4v4dx5sm] Swamiji Parthasarathy: https://tinyurl.com/4swp946w [https://tinyurl.com/4swp946w] Fulfillionaire: https://tinyurl.com/5xtw29sn [https://tinyurl.com/5xtw29sn] JP Newman’s “Fulfillionaire” podcast: https://tinyurl.com/2sezh553 [https://tinyurl.com/2sezh553]

#64: Ancient Wisdom for a New Future: Culture, Women, and the Path to Liberation – Pardis Mahdavi

Order the Book! ► ⁠http://loveconquersfear.org/book [http://loveconquersfear.org/book] What you’ll hear in this episode: - Pardis’ Iranian-American story of exile, identity, and learning to bridge worlds - Persian mysticism, Sufism, Rumi, Hafez, and dance as direct paths to the Divine - Awakening as a cultural choice, and how consciousness can fuel progress - Pardis’ journey from achievement and despair back to God, love, purpose, and liberation - Psychedelics, meditation, and ceremony as sacred tools for healing and awakening - Why psychedelics need wisdom, reverence, integration, and real safety for women - Rethinking education for a world where creativity matters more than information - AI as a force for expanding creativity, storytelling, education, and imagination About Love Conquers Fear: In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? These conversations are calls to action, awakening leaders everywhere to rise and help humanity choose the Light. Follow Brett Alexander Hurt on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretthurt/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/brettahurt Medium: https://databrett.medium.com/ Substack: https://brettahurt.substack.com/ Watch on: YouTube: http://tiny.cc/LCF-YT Spotify: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Spotify Listen on: Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Apple Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/LCF-Amazon About Pardis Mahdavi: Pardis Mahdavi is an author, entrepreneur, coach, keynote speaker, and medical anthropologist whose work explores human rights, gender, migration, education, consciousness, and culture change. She has written books including “Book of Queens”, “Hyphen”, “Passionate Uprisings”, and “Riding”, and has held senior leadership roles in higher education, including president, provost, dean, and professor. Through her writing, teaching, and work with Entheon, Pardis focuses on transformation, healing, creativity, and helping people imagine more liberated futures. Timestamps: 0:00:00 — Preview 0:00:25 — Intro: Meditation retreat in Bali, The Lattice, Brett's new book 0:03:20 — Welcome Pardis Mahdavi 0:06:17 — Ibogaine for healing, Iranian-American identity, pathways to love and the Divine 0:13:37 — Embodied consciousness, ancient wisdom traditions, creating a more awakened reality 0:21:25 — Revolutions start in culture, suffering shaping decisions, Iranian women’s resistance 0:30:41 — Bodily defiance as liberation, Oneness, abundance, transcending cultural constructs 0:41:36 — Storytelling, imagination, rethinking education and policy, creating the future 0:51:29 — Meditation as daily communion, education access, psychedelics, mystery schools 1:05:04 — Decoding reality, consciousness awakening, suffering, healing, purpose, inner journey 1:18:39 — Psychedelic safety for women, women's historic role in medicine, humility, integration 1:28:09 — Closing reflections Books mentioned in this episode: - The Immortality Key — Brian C. Muraresku - Book of Queens — Pardis Mahdavi - Passionate Uprisings — Pardis Mahdavi - Horsepower (forthcoming) — Pardis Mahdavi - Falcon’s Flight (forthcoming) — Pardis Mahdavi - Genesis — Craig Mundie, Eric Schmidt, Henry Kissinger Links: Americans for Ibogaine: https://tinyurl.com/27yhvjcs [https://tinyurl.com/27yhvjcs] Executive order to fast-track psychedelic research: https://tinyurl.com/33by6ynm [https://tinyurl.com/33by6ynm] The University of Texas Systemwide Brain Research Summit 2026: https://tinyurl.com/mwnampfe [https://tinyurl.com/mwnampfe] Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech: https://tinyurl.com/2dcxf33n [https://tinyurl.com/2dcxf33n] Culturati Summit: https://tinyurl.com/4vzjuhd9 [https://tinyurl.com/4vzjuhd9]

#63: The Cyber Arms Race: Securing the Cloud as AI Escalates Risk — Doug Merritt

Pre-Order the Book! ► ⁠http://loveconquersfear.org/book [http://loveconquersfear.org/book] What you’ll hear in this episode: - Why Doug says careers aren’t linear, and how “purpose” shaped his biggest choices - Doug’s leadership philosophy: empower the people closest to the work, then lock in accountability - Why cloud security plays by different rules when everyone is shipping fast - Aviatrix’s core idea: contain the blast radius when something breaks - AI agents as the next cyber risk, with attacks and defenses running at machine speed - Psychedelic-assisted therapy as sacred healing when done safely - Doug’s grounding practices: meditation and time in nature, with a push for more consistent quiet time - Souls and reincarnation as a lens for growth, with discipline as the way back to love faster About Love Conquers Fear: In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? These conversations are calls to action, awakening leaders everywhere to rise and help humanity choose the Light. Follow Brett Alexander Hurt on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretthurt/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/brettahurt Medium: https://databrett.medium.com/ Substack: https://brettahurt.substack.com/ Watch on: YouTube: http://tiny.cc/LCF-YT Spotify: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Spotify Listen on: Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Apple Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/LCF-Amazon About Doug Merritt: Doug Merritt is a tech CEO and longtime enterprise software builder who has led companies through major inflection points in cloud and cybersecurity. He previously served as CEO of Splunk and now serves as Chairman, CEO, and President of Aviatrix, focused on securing cloud infrastructure as AI raises both the upside and the risks of software at scale. Doug’s leadership approach emphasizes empowering teams close to the work and building clear accountability as organizations navigate rapid change. Timestamps: 0:00:00 — Preview 0:01:09 — Intro: Psychedelic research, Jim Fadiman, Culturati Summit, Brett's new book 0:11:03 — Welcome Doug Merritt 0:13:41 — Non-linear career path, tech as a force for good, early SaaS and workforce analytics 0:22:19 — Timing as the decisive factor, inflection points, market waves, empowering teams 0:34:09 — Scaling Spunk, cloud transformation, cybersecurity pivot, public-company turbulence 0:43:17 — AI agents escalating cyber risk, workload-layer cloud security, containment 0:50:53 — Why AI makes hacking easier, breach locks, exponential tech, abundance potential 0:58:59 — AI panic, navigating today’s risks and long-term abundance, no slowing down AI 1:12:15 — Truth-seeing models, messy emergence, UBI vs. concentration, consciousness, meditation 1:33:21 — Closing reflections Books mentioned in this episode: - The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide — James Fadiman - Deep Future — Pablos Holman - Pattern Breakers — Mike Maples Jr., Peter Ziebelman - The Order of Time — Carlo Rovelli - Journey of Souls — Michael Newton - After the Ecstasy, the Laundry — Jack Kornfield Links: Executive order to fast-track psychedelic research: https://tinyurl.com/33by6ynm [https://tinyurl.com/33by6ynm] Americans for Ibogaine: https://tinyurl.com/27yhvjcs [https://tinyurl.com/27yhvjcs] Jim Fadiman on The Tim Ferriss Show: https://tinyurl.com/ycka6tsx [https://tinyurl.com/ycka6tsx] Culturati Summit: https://tinyurl.com/4vzjuhd9 [https://tinyurl.com/4vzjuhd9] Aaron Levie on the opportunity with AI consulting: https://tinyurl.com/537knwwj [https://tinyurl.com/537knwwj] Bill Gross’ TED Talk: https://tinyurl.com/mpdd46yt [https://tinyurl.com/mpdd46yt] Michael and Susan Dell giving over $1B to UT Austin: https://tinyurl.com/yd8zcfyz [https://tinyurl.com/yd8zcfyz] UT Dell Medical Center: https://tinyurl.com/33pd2fue [https://tinyurl.com/33pd2fue] “The AI Doc” documentary: https://tinyurl.com/mt7wj8ct [https://tinyurl.com/mt7wj8ct] Malala Yousafzai’s TED Talk: https://tinyurl.com/454j5bk3 [https://tinyurl.com/454j5bk3]

#62: Rebuilding Trust: AI Agents, Human Dignity, and Universal Basic Capital — Peng T. Ong

Pre-Order the Book! ► ⁠http://loveconquersfear.org/book [http://loveconquersfear.org/book] What you’ll hear in this episode: - How fear-fed algorithms and fake news break shared reality - Why trust is scarce in the AI era, and how AI can rebuild it at scale - The abundance gap in education, with hundreds of millions still at risk of never learning to read - AI as a coach and cheerleader that can expand human potential - Universal Basic Capital (UBC) as a stronger answer than UBI when intelligence gets cheap - How AI forces a metaphysics conversation, and why “AI is conscious” is premature About Love Conquers Fear: In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? These conversations are calls to action, awakening leaders everywhere to rise and help humanity choose the Light. Follow Brett Alexander Hurt on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretthurt/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/brettahurt Medium: https://databrett.medium.com/ Substack: https://brettahurt.substack.com/ Watch on: YouTube: http://tiny.cc/LCF-YT Spotify: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Spotify Listen on: Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Apple Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/LCF-Amazon About Peng Ong: Peng Ong is a Singapore-based entrepreneur and investor who has spent decades building and backing technology companies across the U.S. and Asia. He’s the founding partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures, and his work spans company building, venture investing, and long-range thinking about how technology reshapes society. Peng’s core focus is what comes next as AI scales: trust, education, human-centered guidance, and economic models designed for abundance. Timestamps: 0:00:00 — Preview 0:01:09 — Intro: UT Dell Medical School, Brett's new book 0:05:06 — Welcome Peng Ong 0:07:43 — Singapore roots, purpose, entrepreneurship, unlocking human potential 0:24:17 — AI commoditizing intelligence, scarcity of trust, fact-checking + trust agents 0:40:11 — WW2 survival, AGI race, tribalism, economic singularity 0:56:23 — Algorithmic fear, UBI vs. universal basic capital, spiritual texts, human-centered tech 1:12:17 — Avoiding a future of inequality, freedom vs. control, consciousness vs. intelligence 1:24:07 — Consciousness as a full-body mystery + consciousness books 1:29:35 — Closing reflections Books mentioned in this episode: - The Tao of Willie — Willie Nelson, Turk Pipkin - From Third World to First — Lee Kuan Yew - The AI Ten Commandments — Jamie Metzl - The Diamond Age — Neal Stephenson - The Fourth Age — Byron Reese - Deep Future — Pablos Holman - Bhagavad Gita — Stephen Mitchell (tr.) - Tao Te Ching — Stephen Mitchell (tr.) - The Singularity Is Nearer — Ray Kurzweil - The Singularity Is Near — Ray Kurzweil - A World Appears — Michael Pollan - The Secret of Secrets — Dan Brown - Living in a Mindful Universe — Eben Alexander, Karen Newell - Proof of Heaven — Eben Alexander - The Map of Heaven — Eben Alexander - Stalking the Wild Pendulum — Itzhak Bentov Links: UT Dell Medical Center: https://tinyurl.com/33pd2fue [https://tinyurl.com/33pd2fue] Michael and Susan Dell giving over $1B to UT Austin: https://tinyurl.com/yd8zcfyz [https://tinyurl.com/yd8zcfyz] Plato’s "Allegory of the Cave" (8-Bit Philosophy): https://tinyurl.com/46kh4632 [https://tinyurl.com/46kh4632] Fix the News: https://fixthenews.com/ [https://fixthenews.com/] The Progress Network: https://tinyurl.com/4sdm8ddf [https://tinyurl.com/4sdm8ddf] Elon Musk’s interview with Larry Fink at Davos 2026: https://tinyurl.com/nhj4uef7 [https://tinyurl.com/nhj4uef7] Michael Dell gifting $6.25B to U.S. children born from 2025 to 2028: https://tinyurl.com/3xak6e3a [https://tinyurl.com/3xak6e3a] Dario Amodei’s essay “The Adolescence of Technology”: https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t [https://tinyurl.com/235a2n3t] Hartmut Neven’s TED Talk on quantum computing: https://tinyurl.com/535w253c [https://tinyurl.com/535w253c] Anil Seth’s TED Talk on AI intelligence vs. human consciousness: https://tinyurl.com/465a9jyt [https://tinyurl.com/465a9jyt]

#61: Psychedelic Science: What the Latest Research Teaches Us About Transcending Fear — Greg Fonzo

Pre-Order the Book! ► ⁠http://loveconquersfear.org/book [http://loveconquersfear.org/book] What you’ll hear in this episode: - Greg’s research on the brain circuits that drive depression, PTSD, and chronic stress - How brain imaging and targeted treatments aim to shift threat, fear, and survival states - What psychedelics can unlock when other treatments fail and why the research is accelerating - Ibogaine’s promise and safety risks, and why clinical standards matter - How Ram Dass and psilocybin influenced Greg’s interest in psychedelics and mental health - Why psychedelics challenge the idea that consciousness is just brain chemistry - Meditation and psychedelics as paths to altered states, expanded awareness, and love About Love Conquers Fear: In an era of exponentially evolving AI and robotics, one question looms: Will humanity make it? Love Conquers Fear is where leadership meets love, technology serves humanity, and vision becomes action. Host, Brett Alexander Hurt, tech entrepreneur and investor, sits down with some of the world’s most influential people to ask: Will we unite to create the Age of Abundance for All? These conversations are calls to action, awakening leaders everywhere to rise and help humanity choose the Light. Follow Brett Alexander Hurt on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bretthurt/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/brettahurt Medium: https://databrett.medium.com/ Substack: https://brettahurt.substack.com/ Watch on: YouTube: http://tiny.cc/LCF-YT Spotify: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Spotify Listen on: Apple Podcasts: http://tiny.cc/LCF-Apple Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/LCF-Amazon About Greg Fonzo: Greg Fonzo is an assistant professor at UT Austin’s Dell Medical School and co-director of the Charmaine and Gordon McGill Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy. He studies the brain circuitry behind depression and PTSD, combining neuroimaging, brain stimulation, and psychedelic therapies to pinpoint what drives suffering and what helps people heal. Greg’s work focuses on how the brain’s threat responses can be retrained to support recovery and long-term resilience. Timestamps: 0:00:00 — Preview 0:01:08 — Intro: Dells' gift to UT Austin, Brett's new book 0:03:22 — Welcome Greg Fonzo 0:06:31 — Spiritual roots, AI ethics, psychedelics, brain imaging, fear circuits, psychedelic research 0:20:15 — Ibogaine’s promise, limited data, safety risks, clinical standards, psychedelics as last resort 0:35:07 — Panpsychism, non-local consciousness, science + spirituality, meditation as path to altered states 0:54:17 — Focused ultrasound, ego + division, abundance + energy, surrender vs. control 1:10:22 — Fear as constricted awareness, infinite layers of reality, letting go of ego, returning to love 1:26:49 — Closing reflections Books mentioned in this episode: - Be Here Now — Ram Dass - Quantum Psychology — Robert Anton Wilson - The Fabric of the Cosmos — Brian Greene - Tao Te Ching — Stephen Mitchell (tr.) - Bhagavad Gita — Stephen Mitchell (tr.) - We Are Agora — Byron Reese - Stalking the Wild Pendulum — Itzhak Bentov - Irreducible — Federico Faggin - The AI Ten Commandments — Jamie Metzl - The Last Question — Isaac Asimov - LSD and the Mind of the Universe — Christopher M. Bache - A World Appears — Michael Pollan - Deep Future — Pablos Holman Links: Michael and Susan Dell giving over $1 billion to UT Austin: https://tinyurl.com/yd8zcfyz [https://tinyurl.com/yd8zcfyz] The Vatican’s report on AI: https://tinyurl.com/3bz23w2y [https://tinyurl.com/3bz23w2y] “Ram Dass, Going Home” doc: https://tinyurl.com/yms8t4w7 [https://tinyurl.com/yms8t4w7] Executive order to fast-track psychedelic research: https://tinyurl.com/33by6ynm [https://tinyurl.com/33by6ynm] Americans for Ibogaine: https://tinyurl.com/27yhvjcs [https://tinyurl.com/27yhvjcs] “In Waves and War” doc: https://tinyurl.com/456mf76w [https://tinyurl.com/456mf76w] The Telepathy Tapes: (S1): https://tinyurl.com/4pyansfe [https://tinyurl.com/4pyansfe] (S2): https://tinyurl.com/2khfa57m [https://tinyurl.com/2khfa57m] Swamiji Parthasarathy: https://tinyurl.com/4swp946w [https://tinyurl.com/4swp946w] Jim Carrey videos on his awakening and finding true happiness: https://tinyurl.com/3cy93jpc [https://tinyurl.com/3cy93jpc] https://tinyurl.com/2j9n4mz7 [https://tinyurl.com/2j9n4mz7]