Sam Rad (Samantha Radocchia) is a lifelong student of humanity – futurist, anthropologist, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of Radical Next, a meta-media studio creating transformative stories, experiences, and media productions that shape a positive future. Her upcoming book by the same name, Radical Next: Thriving in Times of Radical Change explores how “radical next ideas” and technologies will transform societies in the decades to come. A charismatic speaker and performer, Sam has shared stories of radical change with global audiences on stages across 5 continents – empowering individuals, leaders, and organizations not only to survive but to thrive through radical and accelerating change. She’s advised the United Nations, WEF, and Federal Reserve Bank, to name a few. Sam was trained in anthropology, engineering, and symbolic systems, studying simulated and immersive realities – pushing the bounds of human consciousness and connection through her work. She was amongst the first anthropologists to conduct ethnographic research living in the virtual world of “Second Life” in 2009.
Her work as a futurist has led Sam on a journey of working with a range of frontier technologies, indigenous and emerging social structures, people, places, and practices. She refers to herself as an archaeologist of the future, as Fredric Jameson coined -- applying a traditional anthropological ethnographic approach to envisioning and illustrating future possibilities. Just as a small shard of pottery unlocks insight into past civilizations, a seemingly unremarkable detail in the present offers a window into infinite future possibilities and realities. Sam carefully reconstructs fragmented visions of what was, what is, and what can be. A four-time entrepreneur, Sam has served across multiple founding executive roles across the C-Suite. She was previously co-founder of LOVE, a London-based Generative AI communication platform, and Chronicled, a San Francisco-based blockchain company bringing trust to global commerce and supply chains. Before Chronicled, Sam founded two companies leveraging AI to map personal taste. Sam holds several patents linking the physical and digital worlds and is considered a pioneer in Applied Cryptography, Blockchain systems, Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Immersive Realities, and Simulations. She is noted as inventing the protocols that would lead to ERC-721 or Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
Sam is the author of the #1 Best Seller, Bitcoin Pizza: The No Bullshit Guide to Blockchain, writes as a contributor to Forbes, and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Sam is passionate about empowering humanity to thrive in times of radical change. It is her mission to restore trust and connections between people and themselves, their source, each other, all beings, and our planet. True to her “Rad” name, Sam is no stranger to risk and has accumulated over 700 jumps as a competitive skydiver.
"Sam is a rare individual who has the unique ability to catalyze and inspire everyone around her."
"Sam is a rare individual who has the unique ability to catalyze and inspire everyone around her."