A humanitarian activist and National Geographic journalist, Zoltan has been compared in leading media outlets to a young Al Gore and described as a modern-day Ayn Rand. Often cited as the global leader of the radical science movement, Zoltan has transformed transhumanism into a thriving worldwide phenomenon with his wildly popular US Presidential run as a science candidate, bestselling book The Transhumanist Wager, and powerful speeches at institutions like the World Bank.
The Columbia graduate is on a mission to use science, technology, and reason to dramatically remake humanity. He has consulted for the US Navy as a futurist, interviewed to be Gary Johnson’s Vice President, been a guest on Joe Rogan's podcast, and spoken to audiences including Microsoft, the Global Leaders Forum, and the Financial Times Camp Alphaville. His award-winning 2013 novel, The Transhumanist Wager, was a number one bestseller in Philosophy and a Top 5 Amazon book. It has been compared to Ayn Rand's work in more than 1000 reviews and is taught in colleges around the world as a warning and inspiration about the future. In 2017, a feature documentary, “Immortality or Bust,” detailed Istvan’s ideas and presidential campaign, including the story of his historic tour across America on the Immortality Bus. Istvan is the founder of the Transhumanist Party, the author of the Transhumanist Bill of Rights, and a frequently interviewed expert on artificial intelligence.
Before becoming an acclaimed futurist, he was a journalist for the National Geographic Channel (often an on-camera reporter) and The New York Times Syndicate. Istvan has traveled to over 100 countries and has a degree in Philosophy and Religion from Columbia University. Currently, he writes for many major media publications, including Newsweek, Wired, Vice, TechCrunch, and The San Francisco Chronicle.
He is a successful entrepreneur and The New Yorker has written about his success in real estate. Zoltan’s feature warzone documentary, Pawns of Paradise, on the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan, won two documentary awards and played in film festivals around the world. Zoltan was a Communications Director at WildAid, a major nonprofit wildlife organization that aims to stop wildlife poaching and protect endangered species. As an athlete, Zoltan was a national champion water polo player and is credited with inventing the extreme sport of Volcano Boarding, which debuted on the National Geographic Channel in 2002 and is practiced around the world today. Zoltan plays the guitar and piano and owns a vineyard in Argentina. He has a wife and two children.
