What happens when mathematics, physics, economics, AI, and systemic risk collide? In this episode of the Prof Mahesh Podcast, we sit down with Prof. Venkat Venkatasubramanian, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University, to explore the big ideas shaping science, technology, and society. With a remarkable 50-year career, Prof. Venkat takes us from the early days of neural networks at CMU and Hinton’s lab, to pioneering work on consciousness, teleodynamics, and systemic risk.Key insights include: how statistical mechanics inspired neural networks, the fusion of thermodynamics and game theory in modeling markets, why understanding consciousness may require new mathematics, and hard lessons from Bhopal, the 2008 crash, Deepwater Horizon, and the climate crisis.This episode is a must-watch for anyone interested in AI, AGI, economics, risk, and the future of human knowledge.