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UnDisciplined: Shoot for the moon (and then some), pt. 1

The Undisciplined logo features an atom circling a microphone

Moonshots are big, audacious ideas that have the potential to change the world. Today, they've become synonymous with Silicon Valley and vast corporations.

But Salima Bhimani, who worked at Alphabet, Google’s parent company, helping its famous “Other Bets” arm, believes we've made the concept of moonshots too simple and too insular. Some of the most consequential innovations in human history didn't require billion-dollar startups, and some of the people with the most important ideas today may live thousands of miles from Silicon Valley, without access to its money, networks or privilege.

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Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something occurred to him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be so brutally depressing all the time. These days, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects with his work on UnDisciplined — Utah Public Radio's weekly program on science and discovery.