What makes it possible for billions of strangers to cooperate every day?

Trust.

Not the kind you have with friends and family. But an elaborate, invisible scaffolding of norms, institutions, laws, and technologies that took thousands of years to build and that most of us never think about.

In this episode, we trace the full arc: from ancient legal codes and religious enforcement, to medieval merchant networks, the rise of banking and modern finance, and finally to blockchain and cryptocurrencies that propose to eliminate the need for trusted intermediaries altogether.

We explore why Bitcoin proved trustless exchange was possible, why newer digital assets like XRP are designed to make it practical, and what the "Internet of Value" could mean for a future dominated by AI agents.

But we also confront an uncomfortable question: can any technology, no matter how elegant, replace the social trust that holds civilizations together?

To help keep Context with Brad Harris going and access bonus episodes, join me on Patreon or subscribe through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Where did probability come from? In this episode, Brad Harris explores how the invention of probability reshaped humanity's relationship with uncertainty—and why artificial intelligence (AI) ultimately runs on the same mathematics of prediction.

For most of human history, the future was not something people tried to calculate. It was fate, providence, or the will of the gods.

Then in the summer of 1654, two French mathematicians—Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat—began exchanging letters about a gambling problem. From that correspondence emerged one of the most powerful ideas in human history: probability.

Once uncertainty could be quantified, the consequences were enormous. Insurance markets became possible. Medical treatments could be tested through clinical trials. Governments began measuring populations statistically. Engineers could calculate risk and safety margins. Modern science itself increasingly relied on statistical reasoning.

But the story doesn't end there.

Today, the same probabilistic thinking underlies the most powerful technology ever created: artificial intelligence. Large language models like ChatGPT are fundamentally prediction engines—systems trained to calculate what words are most likely to come next.

From ancient gambling games to modern AI, this episode explores how the invention of probability transformed the modern world—and why we are now living inside the most powerful prediction machines ever built.

If you like Context with Brad Harris, you can help keep the show going and access bonus episodes through Patreon or by subscribing through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Find Brad Harris on X @bradcoleharris

Why do civilizations turn against their own greatness, and what happens when they do?

In this episode of Context with Brad Harris, we trace the psychology of civilizational decline, from the Great Wall of China and the Apollo program to the Department of Justice's 2026 lawsuit against UCLA Medical School, asking why modern Western culture increasingly treats excellence as a moral threat.

Drawing on Alain de Botton's book Status Anxiety and Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, we explore how status anxiety breeds resentment, how resentment disguises itself as compassion, and how institutions captured by this cycle begin to reward narrative over competence, with consequences that can be lethal.

This episode builds on my previous episodes Which Humanity Survives and Layers of Meaning in Human History to ask: do we still have the civilizational courage to revere greatness?

Follow me on X @bradcoleharris

To listen ad-free and access lots of additional bonus episodes, join me on Patreon or subscribe directly through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.