From hippies to techies, Stewart Brand is the 20th century’s top “influencer”

VPM | By Manoush Zomorodi, Matthew Cloutier, Sanaz Meshkinpour and Rachel Faulkner White

Published July 11, 2025 at 2:35 PM EDT

Part 2 of TED Radio Hour‘s “Prophets of Technology: The OG influencers“

Stewart Brand inspired a generation of hippies and coders, including Steve Jobs. With his finger on the pulse, Brand helped build the future we live in.

About Stewart Brand

Stewart Brand is the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and co-founder of The Long Now Foundation, The Well and Revive & Restore.

He is the author of The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT, How Buildings Learn, The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility and II Cybernetic Frontiers. His latest book, Maintenance: Of Everything will be released later this year.

Brand has given many TED talks, including “The Long Now” and “The dawn of de-extinction. Are you ready?”

The film and podcast, We Are As Gods, chronicles Brand’s life and legacy.

This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Matthew Cloutier and Rachel Faulkner White and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at [email protected].

Web Resources

Related TED Bio: Stewart Brand

Related TED Talk: 4 environmental ‘heresies’

Related TED Talk: The long now

Related NPR Links

TED Radio Hour: Stewart Brand reflects on a lifetime of staying “hungry and foolish”

Morning Edition: The ‘Whole Earth Catalog’ was the internet before the internet

TED Radio Hour: Is Density Our Destiny?

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Manoush Zomorodi

Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.

Zomorodi is a co-founder of Stable Genius Productions and is the co-host and co-creator of ZigZag, the business podcast about being human. She also created, hosted, and was managing editor of the podcast Note to Self in partnership with WNYC Studios, which was named Best Tech Podcast of 2017 by The Academy of Podcasters.

Prior to her time at WNYC, Zomorodi reported and produced around the world for BBC News and Thomson Reuters, including a few years in Berlin.

She was named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2018 and has received numerous awards for her work, including The Gracie for Best Radio Host in 2014 and 2018. Her book "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Creative Self" (2017, St. Martin's Press) and her TED Talk are guides to surviving information overload and the "Attention Economy."

Zomorodi received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in English and fine arts. She is half-Persian and half-Swiss but was born in New York City, where she lives with her family.

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