Former Google CEO and co-founder of Schmidt Futures, Eric Schmidt today launched his first podcast, “Reimagine with Eric Schmidt” to dive into the future of society after COVID-19. The podcast features Schmidt in conversations with the world’s leaders in government, business, science, and technology to explore how we can mobilize people and technology to solve our current challenges at scale and to build a brighter future after this global crisis. Each episode will explore how to reimagine a fundamental area of our lives, including healthcare, education, global prosperity, air travel, cities & public spaces, work and more.
The podcast series, produced by Schmidt Futures, with Executive Producers Adam & Jordan Bornstein (Pen Name Consulting) and Compass Media Networks, will engage brilliant minds of our time to explore and understand both the challenges and potential solutions to a wide range of issues we are facing during this truly unprecedented moment in history. In the premiere episode Schmidt speaks with United Nations Secretary General António Guterres about the current fragile state of the world, and how we can rethink US-China relations, education and equality to put us on a different trajectory and rewrite our future.
Additional guests will include:
Head of Genentech Research and Early Development and MIT Professor of Biology Aviv Regev
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb
Nobel Laureate Economist Esther Duflo
Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance
Miracle on the Hudson Captain Sully Sullenberger
LSE Dean and Former Chile Finance Minister Andrés Velasco
Indian Philanthropist Ashish Dhawan
Epidemiologist Michael Schmidt
Former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd
To make the promise of reimagining real, the first episode will also feature up to $1 million in scholarships and prizes through the Reimagine Challenge 2020. Post-secondary students around the world will have the opportunity to have their ideas supported by Schmidt Futures by submitting a written project proposal that addresses one of the following topics:
Sparking a Global Movement: What is one concrete way that YOU could motivate 1,000,000 people to work in concert to make the world meaningfully better within 10 years? What would you do, what would be the key steps to grow an effective massive action, and why would this have significant impact? Why should we have confidence that you will succeed and how would we know that you had succeeded?
Community Impact from COVID-19: What is the most surprising or unusual insight you have had about your community in the wake of the pandemic? Given this insight, what is the most important concrete action that YOU and a growing group of others could take to help your community or country better respond to changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic? How would you and we know you had succeeded?
“The pandemic has shed a light on societal issues and systems that hold back progress across the globe. With the tools and technology available today, we have the chance to reimagine our future. Now, more than ever, we must call upon and support the creative minds of the next generation to challenge the norms and build back a better world,” said Eric Schmidt, host of Reimagine and co-founder of Schmidt Futures.
Schmidt Futures will select up to 20 winners to receive up to $25,000 each as scholarships through their institutions. The institution where the winner is currently enrolled will also receive up to $25,000 for each winning idea. The winners will join a growing global network of emerging talent committed to serving their communities.
For details about eligibility and how to enter, visit: https://www.reimaginepod.org/challenge
This call to action is part of a series of announcements stemming from a $1 billion philanthropic commitment made by Eric and Wendy Schmidt in 2019 to find and elevate talent across disciplines to address our most pressing global issues. The anchor program of the Schmidts’ commitment, Rise, will target 15-17 year-olds around the world to encourage a lifetime of service and learning by providing scholarships, career services, and funding opportunities to enable these young leaders to serve others for years to come. Rise, a partnership with the Rhodes Trust, will announce an opening of applications for the inaugural cohort in autumn of this year.
**Submissions for Reimagine Challenge 2020 open August 26th, 2020
For more information on the proposal process, requirements and eligibility: https://www.reimaginepod.org/challenge
The podcast is available to stream or download here. Please subscribe to receive the latest episodes: https://www.reimaginepod.org/episodes
About Eric Schmidt
Eric Schmidt is an accomplished technologist, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He joined Google in 2001 and helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Eric served as Google’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman from 2001-2011, as well as Executive Chairman and Technical Advisor. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation. In 2017, he co-founded Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative designed to help exceptional people do more for others by applying science and technology thoughtfully and working together across fields.
About Schmidt Futures
Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative, founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, that bets early on people who will make our world better — helping people to achieve more for others by applying advanced science and technology thoughtfully and by working together across fields. For more information, visit https://schmidtfutures.com.
SOURCE Schmidt Futures