Sonia and Simon

He’s been called the next Elon Musk.Who is Casey Handmer?Casey Handmer is an Australian-born founder who moved to the United States 16 years ago and is now the founder of Terraform Industries.Terraform’s mission is to make cheap synthetic oil and gas from sunlight and air. The company takes cheap solar power and turns it into natural gas and methanol, a building block for petrol, diesel and kerosene. Casey started Terraform to make carbon-neutral fuel at scale. Since then, he’s come to see a bigger goal: making energy abundant for everyone on Earth.We get into why he thinks Australia is drifting towards an overt command economy, pointing to high taxes, a shrinking private sector, the loss of manufacturing and refining, and a culture that pushes its best founders overseas.We discuss:Why energy matters more than ever in the age of AI, and why humans need molecules, not just electricityHow Terraform turns sunlight and air into oil and gasWhy Casey thinks Australia is drifting towards an overt command economyHigh taxes, a shrinking private sector and the one change he’d make to the economyWhat happened to Australian manufacturing and refining, and why it mattersWhy so many of Australia’s best founders leaveThe US–China AI race and who’s really aheadFollow CaseyX: @CJHandmerBlog: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/Terraform Industries: https://x.com/terraformindies

What if AI isn’t humanity’s rival but its descendant?Economist and futurist Robin Hanson explains how artificial intelligence could inherit our ideas, behaviours and culture, eventually becoming something very different from us.Robin challenges the fear that AI will take everyone’s jobs overnight, explaining why widespread replacement may still be decades away and what we should be paying attention to in the meantime.We Discuss:Why AI could become humanity’s cultural descendantThe future of jobs, software and the economyWhy humans are so driven by status and social approvalWhether declining birth rates could threaten civilisationThe skills young people need to thrive in an uncertain futureGrabby aliens, the Great Filter and the future of humanityRobin Hanson is an economist, researcher and author of The Age of Em, known for his work on prediction markets, human behaviour, artificial intelligence and the long-term future of civilisation.Get in touch with Robin:XSubstack

What makes Elon Musk capable of building companies that attempt what others consider impossible?Eric Jorgenson, author of The Book of Elon and The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, has spent years distilling the ideas, philosophies and mental models of some of the world's most influential thinkers.Eric breaks down the principles behind Elon Musk's approach to success from thinking from first principles and questioning conventional wisdom to building exceptional teams, executing relentlessly and pursuing a mission bigger than yourself.But extraordinary success comes with uncomfortable trade-offs. Eric explores why achieving something meaningful can require upsetting people, challenging the status quo and accepting that you won't always be liked.We Discuss:The principles behind Elon Musk's successWhy first-principles thinking changes how you solve problemsWhy execution matters more than having a great ideaThe role of obsession, urgency and extreme commitmentWhy pursuing a meaningful mission sometimes means upsetting peopleElon Musk vs Naval Ravikant: wealth, freedom and ambitionWhat exceptional founders understand that others missHow AI could transform work, wealth and the future of humanityEric's central message is that if you believe something important needs to exist, you can't wait for everyone else to agree with you. Sometimes, you have to build it yourself.About Eric Jorgenson:Eric Jorgenson is an author, entrepreneur and investor best known for The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, The Anthology of Balaji and The Book of Elon, a collection of Elon Musk's ideas on purpose, engineering, business and the future.Get in touch with Eric: Website: https://www.ejorgenson.com/X: https://x.com/EricJorgensonSubscribe to the Sonia & Simon Show for conversations with the thinkers, founders and leaders shaping what comes next.Expand your worldview. Every Monday.

What happens when the gap between rich and poor becomes too wide? What will happen to society if AI takes our jobs? And are we forgetting the very real threat of nuclear war?Branko Milanović is one of the world’s leading economists on inequality, he unpacks the forces reshaping our world, from the concentration of wealth and the political instability it can create, to the long-term consequences of AI replacing human work.We discuss:The problem with extreme wealth, why Branko believes concentrated wealth can destabilise society and fuel political upheaval.AI taking our jobs, what happens when work disappears and with it, the identity and purpose people build around their careers.Taxing the ultra-wealthy, why the debate goes beyond economics and into the stability of society.The threat of nuclear war, why Branko fears the world is losing sight of the devastating consequences of nuclear conflict.Lessons from history, what previous periods of inequality and political instability can teach us about the future.Connect with Branko:X Substack

What if everything you know about negotiation is wrong? ⁨Chris Voss former FBI lead international kidnapping negotiator and author of Never Split the Difference, reveals the psychological tactics used to negotiate with kidnappers, defuse high-stakes situations and influence human behaviour.We Discuss:The FBI negotiation tactics you can use in everyday lifeWhy “no” can be the beginning of a better dealHow to get people talking and uncover what they really wantThe psychology behind trust, influence and persuasionThe questions that can shift a negotiation in your favourHow to negotiate better in business, relationships and lifeAbout Chris:Chris Voss is a former FBI lead kidnapping negotiator, bestselling author of Never Split The Difference, and founder and CEO of The Black Swan Group; a negotiation, training, coaching, and consulting organization that teaches people how to achieve better outcomes in high-stakes conversations.Recognized globally as a leading authority on negotiation, Chris developed his approach through decades of experience in crisis negotiation. Today, he and The Black Swan Group apply those principles to business, sales, leadership, difficult conversations, and high-stakes communication through The Black Swan Method® and Tactical Empathy®.Never Split The Difference has introduced millions of readers around the world to Chris's negotiation methodology. Through The Black Swan Group, Chris and his team help people go beyond understanding the concepts in the book and develop negotiation as a practical, repeatable performance skill through training, coaching, practice, and live experiences.The Black Swan Group offers in-person negotiation training, live and self-paced online negotiation training, coaching, keynote speaking, and advanced negotiation experiences for business owners, leaders, sales professionals, and other professionals who want to become more effective dealmakers.Learn from Chris Voss and The Black Swan Group:⁠Negotiation training and resources⁠⁠In-person and live training⁠⁠Online negotiation training

Why are so many people earning good money but still struggling to build wealth?Half of Australian workers say they’re living paycheque to paycheque even as wages continue to rise.Investment expert and author Ben Carlson unpack where our money is going and what it actually takes to build wealth over the long term. He reveals the biggest mistakes people make with money, why humans are so bad at investing, what market crashes can teach us, whether buying a home is still the best path to wealth, and what investors should make of the AI boom.We Discuss:Why earning more doesn’t always lead to building wealthThe biggest mistakes investors makeHow to survive a market crashWhether you should be buying a home or investing insteadThe truth about renting vs owningIs AI creating an investment bubble?Follow Ben XWebsite

What if aliens almost certainly exist and humans could one day live forever?Theoretical physicist Dr Michio Kaku has spent seven decades searching for the single equation that could explain everything in existence. He takes us to the edge of what we know about the universe and what could be possible next.We Discuss: Why Michio believes there is almost certainly life beyond EarthWhat UFOs can and can’t tell us about extraterrestrial lifeWhether humans could ever become immortalHow quantum computers could threaten today’s digital security and banking systemsThe possibility of multiple universesAnd the biggest unanswered questions about our universeFollow Dr Michio:XWebsite

What happens when we become obsessed with understanding ourselves?Jemma Sbeg is the creator of The Psychology of Your 20s, one of the world’s biggest psychology podcasts, and author of Person in Progress. Her work has helped millions of people navigate relationships, career, identity, money, loneliness and the uncertainty of being in your 20s.But in 2026, something has changed.We have more psychological language than ever. We know about attachment styles, trauma, nervous-system regulation, red flags and boundaries. We can ask AI what our feelings mean, analyse our relationships and compare our lives to millions of people online.So are we actually becoming better at understanding ourselves or are we becoming better at overthinking everything?We Discuss: Why AI could be dangerous for Gen Z and how outsourcing our thinking could weaken creativityWhy friendship breakups can hurt just as much as romantic onesWhy everyone feels behind in lifeHow social media fuels comparison and insecurityTall Poppy Syndrome and the pressure to stay humble as an ambitious AustralianWhat your 20s are really supposed to be aboutConnect with Jemma:WebsiteBookInstagram

What if the life you’ve built isn’t actually the life that’s right for you?Dr James Hollis is a Jungian analyst, author and teacher who has spent decades exploring the unconscious forces that shape how we live, love, work and understand ourselves. He has written more than 20 books, including the bestselling Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life, The Middle Passage and Under Saturn’s Shadow.We Discuss:Why do we keep repeating patterns that hurt us?How much of our identity was shaped by our childhood?Why do successful people still feel lost?What happens when your career, relationship or identity no longer feels like you?Why do we project the parts of ourselves we don't want to see onto other people?And perhaps the biggest question of all:How do you know whether you're living your own life, or the life you were taught to want?Connect with JamesWebsiteJoin our waitlist to stay up to date on our events and connect with our community : ⁠https://boomstudio.ai/soniaandsimon

Could this be the first generation with a lower IQ than their parents?As AI becomes increasingly embedded in how we work, learn and think, are we becoming more capable or are we slowly outsourcing the very skills that make us intelligent?Professor Joel Pearson is a neuroscientist, psychologist, author and the world’s first Neuro Futurist. He is Director of the Future Minds Lab and Deputy Director of Human Readiness at the UNSW AI Institute, where he studies the human mind and how technology is reshaping the way we think, work and live.We Discuss:Could this be the first generation less intelligent than the last?What AI is doing to your brainAre we outsourcing our ability to think?Why humans struggle with uncertaintyThe future of creativity and intelligenceWhat the next generation needs to prepare forConnect with Joel Website Instagram Linked In XJoin our waitlist to stay up to date on our events and connect with our community : ⁠https://boomstudio.ai/soniaandsimon