#AcademicRunPlaylist - 3/6/34

It was another rainy day in Boston, but I was still able to find time to enjoy some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a fascinating panel on sustainable tech in Africa at the Africa Tech Summit Nairobi with Erik Nygard, Carol Koech, Josh Whale, Abel Boreto, and Victoria Amunga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dcqoUXuB9w

Next was an important talk by Virginia Mantouvalou on structural injustice and workers' rights at the UCL Faculty of Laws. Mantouvalou rightly calls out the issue with solely focusing on business responsibility for modern slavery rather than the governmental and societal systems that make it possible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-VmeyF6UTg

Next was an interesting panel on embedded finance at the Africa Tech Summit Nairobi with Meagan Rabe, Gwera Kiwana, Ted Pantone, and Thea Sokolowski https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41rZMmo_aCE

Next was an excellent talk by Josh Tenenbaum on the role of language in cognition and the concept of a "game engine" in our head at Harvard CMSA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTM2Qmw-aek

Next was a thought-provoking panel on the future of crypto in Africa at the Africa Tech Summit Nairobi with Jason Marshall, Christian Duffus, Gwera Kiwana, and Munachimso Ogueke. Africa is one of the few markets where crypto solves real problems, and this was an informative discussion on the topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP28nEMXJ2M

Next was a wide-ranging discussion with Eric Yttri on the relationship between behavior and neural activity on the Brain Inspired podcast. I particularly liked the discussion of different animal models (which included slime molds and octopuses) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV6TDklVaaU

Last was a great slate of short talks on women entrepreneurial activity in Africa at the Africa Tech Summit Nairobi with Elom Lassey, Katie Hill, Lorna Rutto, Lewam Kefela, and Micheline Ntiru. While there are still lots of challenges in this space, particularly the issue of VCs underinvesting in women entrepreneurs, the momentum here is impressive and hopefully continues to build https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyGSSTKQygQ