Research & Practice
Samantha Radocchia
Publishes and speaks as Sam Rad
Anthropologist and technologist who builds. Four companies, four granted patents, two books, and field research from the Sacred Valley to a QAnon Discord server, all pointed at one problem: perceptual security, or what a society does when it can no longer agree on what is real. I build the systems, then go and see what happens to them.
At a glance
NowCo-founder, Illicit Shadows and MISTIC. Founder, RADOC.
BuiltChronicled (MediLedger), NYOUM (YOUM.AI), Stunable.
PatentsFour granted, first-named inventor.
BooksRadical Next (2025). Bitcoin Pizza (2019).
FieldPeru, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Israel, Second Life, Discord.
DegreesMA New York University. BA Colgate.
Training and certification
2025Cybersecurity · Google
2024Open-source intelligence · Bellingcat
2013Software engineering · Flatiron School
2012Organizational behavior · King’s College London
Current practice
2025 – presentCo-Founder, Illicit Shadows, LLC · Washington, DC
Investigative documentary series on illicit economies, with David M. Luna. Custodian of MISTIC (Illicit Shadows Media, Technology, and Innovation Convergence), an institute mapping the convergence of organized crime, emerging technology, and global threat networks, and home to Project Helix, an AI-based predictive convergence system. Partners: International Coalition Against Illicit Economies and RADOC.Briefings, 2024 to present: MISTIC findings on convergent crime, illicit finance, and synthetic media presented to delegations at the UN General Assembly, the OECD, and INTERPOL.
Investigative documentary series on illicit economies, with David M. Luna. Custodian of MISTIC (Illicit Shadows Media, Technology, and Innovation Convergence), an institute mapping the convergence of organized crime, emerging technology, and global threat networks, and home to Project Helix, an AI-based predictive convergence system. Partners: International Coalition Against Illicit Economies and RADOC.Briefings, 2024 to present: MISTIC findings on convergent crime, illicit finance, and synthetic media presented to delegations at the UN General Assembly, the OECD, and INTERPOL.
2011 – presentFounder, RADOC and Sam Rad Media
Media studio working in narrative futurism and producing Illicit Shadows (RADOC, founded 2024), and the speaking practice through which Sam has keynoted on five continents to governments, Fortune 500 companies, trade associations, and international organizations (founded 2011).
Media studio working in narrative futurism and producing Illicit Shadows (RADOC, founded 2024), and the speaking practice through which Sam has keynoted on five continents to governments, Fortune 500 companies, trade associations, and international organizations (founded 2011).
Fieldwork
2024 – presentMindo, Ecuador
State actors and infrastructure in illicit economies: how public institutions and physical logistics are co-opted or captured.
State actors and infrastructure in illicit economies: how public institutions and physical logistics are co-opted or captured.
2023Medellín, Colombia
Use of marketplace dating applications by transnational organized crime groups for recruitment and targeting. Platform ethnography and offline follow-through.
Use of marketplace dating applications by transnational organized crime groups for recruitment and targeting. Platform ethnography and offline follow-through.
2022 – 2023Pisac, Peru and the Yucatán, Mexico
Convergence in illicit trade: where human trafficking and forced labor, money laundering, and contraband movement meet in the same corridors and the same local economies.
Convergence in illicit trade: where human trafficking and forced labor, money laundering, and contraband movement meet in the same corridors and the same local economies.
2020 – 2024SamRad.AI · autoethnography
Built a working cognitive, vocal, and visual likeness of herself, trained on fifteen years of her own commonplace books, published writing, and public output, then studied what it was able to do: hold opinions on material it had never seen, and convince colleagues and family on a video call. The most capable version was withheld from release. The project produced the questions that became her work on perceptual security.
Built a working cognitive, vocal, and visual likeness of herself, trained on fifteen years of her own commonplace books, published writing, and public output, then studied what it was able to do: hold opinions on material it had never seen, and convince colleagues and family on a video call. The most capable version was withheld from release. The project produced the questions that became her work on perceptual security.
2020 – 2021Discord · virtual
Cognitive and narrative attack vectors through perceptual communities of practice. Case study on Pastel QAnon.
Cognitive and narrative attack vectors through perceptual communities of practice. Case study on Pastel QAnon.
2009 – 2010Israel
Independent research on the role of national myth in establishing collective consciousness and identity.
Independent research on the role of national myth in establishing collective consciousness and identity.
2009 – 2010Second Life · virtual
Constructing Identity in Virtual and Simulated Landscapes: an ethnography of Second Life. Among the first anthropologists to conduct sustained participant observation inside a persistent virtual world.
Constructing Identity in Virtual and Simulated Landscapes: an ethnography of Second Life. Among the first anthropologists to conduct sustained participant observation inside a persistent virtual world.
Invention and standards
US 11,354,676 B2Open Registry for Identity of Things
Granted 7 June 2022. First-named inventor. Assignee Chronicled, Inc.
Granted 7 June 2022. First-named inventor. Assignee Chronicled, Inc.
US 10,210,527 B2Open Registry for Identity of Things Including Social Record Feature
Granted 19 February 2019. First-named inventor.
Granted 19 February 2019. First-named inventor.
Filed 2017Open Registry for Provenance and Tracking of Goods in the Supply Chain
Filed 2017Open Registry for Human Identification
Also filedUS 11,113,699 B2 and US 11,107,088 B2, continuations granted 2021 · Including Sealed Materials · Including Item Location Feature · Including Tamperproof Tags
StandardsEarly protocol work at Chronicled, open sourced into the Ethereum standards, predating and paralleling ERC-721.
Ventures and appointments
2016 – 2023Faculty, Singularity University · Santa Clara, CA
Designed and delivered executive innovation programs on technological, socio-cultural, and geopolitical convergence. Built workshops and prototyping formats used at global summits, and ran foresight sessions for Fortune 100 leadership teams on distributed ledgers, machine learning, advanced manufacturing, and extended realities.Built: executive program curriculum · prototyping and foresight workshop formats · keynote practice to audiences of 3,000+
Designed and delivered executive innovation programs on technological, socio-cultural, and geopolitical convergence. Built workshops and prototyping formats used at global summits, and ran foresight sessions for Fortune 100 leadership teams on distributed ledgers, machine learning, advanced manufacturing, and extended realities.Built: executive program curriculum · prototyping and foresight workshop formats · keynote practice to audiences of 3,000+
2020 – 2022CEO & Co-Founder, NYOUM Ltd · London
Founded and led an applied AI company from zero to product. Built YOUM.AI, an AI-native video communication platform, and the research function behind it: natural language processing, large language models, machine translation, speech and facial recognition, and biometrics. Hired the team, set the research agenda, took the product to market in the US, then led the pivot and the handover to a regional CEO.Built: an AI research function from scratch · one platform to market · the pivot decision and succession
Founded and led an applied AI company from zero to product. Built YOUM.AI, an AI-native video communication platform, and the research function behind it: natural language processing, large language models, machine translation, speech and facial recognition, and biometrics. Hired the team, set the research agenda, took the product to market in the US, then led the pivot and the handover to a regional CEO.Built: an AI research function from scratch · one platform to market · the pivot decision and succession
2014 – 2019Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer, then CMO, Chronicled · San Francisco
Venture-backed enterprise software company, $30M+ raised, 50+ staff. Founded the company’s innovation infrastructure: the Blockchain × IoT Laboratory, the Enterprise Protocol Lab, and Blockchain for Better. Evaluated 1,500+ use cases across consumer and enterprise markets, incubated 20+ industry ecosystems, and brought 10+ products to market across authentication, cold chain, secure sealing, and track and trace. Built the MediLedger network (Pfizer, Genentech, AmerisourceBergen, McKesson, Cardinal Health) and Responsible Gold. Founding member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, Trusted IoT Alliance, and MOBI. Educated 250+ Fortune 500 C-suite executives and board members. Hired the initial team of 50+ designers and engineers, and acquired an additive manufacturing company to bring hardware in house.Illicit markets addressed: counterfeit pharmaceuticals and diverted product, counterfeit luxury goods and apparel, illicit precious metals and minerals, gray-market automotive parts, and food fraud.
Venture-backed enterprise software company, $30M+ raised, 50+ staff. Founded the company’s innovation infrastructure: the Blockchain × IoT Laboratory, the Enterprise Protocol Lab, and Blockchain for Better. Evaluated 1,500+ use cases across consumer and enterprise markets, incubated 20+ industry ecosystems, and brought 10+ products to market across authentication, cold chain, secure sealing, and track and trace. Built the MediLedger network (Pfizer, Genentech, AmerisourceBergen, McKesson, Cardinal Health) and Responsible Gold. Founding member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, Trusted IoT Alliance, and MOBI. Educated 250+ Fortune 500 C-suite executives and board members. Hired the initial team of 50+ designers and engineers, and acquired an additive manufacturing company to bring hardware in house.Illicit markets addressed: counterfeit pharmaceuticals and diverted product, counterfeit luxury goods and apparel, illicit precious metals and minerals, gray-market automotive parts, and food fraud.
2011 – 2014Founder & CEO, Stunable · New York
Built machine-learning recommendation systems for e-commerce, including the first-of-its-kind “fashion genome project” mapping consumer taste. Pioneered single-click inventory integration; the synchronization engine was used by 10,000+ merchants. Raised the funding, ran the company, and negotiated a multi-year docuseries contract with NBC as part of go-to-market.Built: a taste-mapping ML system · an inventory engine at 10,000+ merchant scale · a network television partnership
Built machine-learning recommendation systems for e-commerce, including the first-of-its-kind “fashion genome project” mapping consumer taste. Pioneered single-click inventory integration; the synchronization engine was used by 10,000+ merchants. Raised the funding, ran the company, and negotiated a multi-year docuseries contract with NBC as part of go-to-market.Built: a taste-mapping ML system · an inventory engine at 10,000+ merchant scale · a network television partnership
2011 – presentFounder, Radical Next · R&D lab
An innovation vehicle for work with Fortune 500 companies, startups, non-profits, and governments. Projects: decentralized manufacturing and IP storage with 3D printers for a Fortune 100 industrial manufacturer; values and ingredient-based recommendation with decentralized shopper data for a global consumer goods company; identity and currency deployment in a Venezuelan and Brazilian refugee camp; secure file storage for journalists and sources in conflict zones; tracking of volatile substances and chemicals for a Fortune 50 energy company and a global oil major; autonomous vehicle delivery and authentication; large-scale virtual world architecture and asset protocol for a blockchain gaming platform.
An innovation vehicle for work with Fortune 500 companies, startups, non-profits, and governments. Projects: decentralized manufacturing and IP storage with 3D printers for a Fortune 100 industrial manufacturer; values and ingredient-based recommendation with decentralized shopper data for a global consumer goods company; identity and currency deployment in a Venezuelan and Brazilian refugee camp; secure file storage for journalists and sources in conflict zones; tracking of volatile substances and chemicals for a Fortune 50 energy company and a global oil major; autonomous vehicle delivery and authentication; large-scale virtual world architecture and asset protocol for a blockchain gaming platform.
Publications
2025Radical Next: Reclaiming Your Humanity in a Post-Human World · #1 bestseller
2019Bitcoin Pizza: The No-Bullshit Guide to Blockchain · Lioncrest · #1 Amazon bestseller on release
2017 – 2021Contributing writer, Forbes. Over fifty pieces on emerging technology and society. Also Fast Company, Worth, HuffPost, Inc., IBTimes, CoinDesk.
OngoingCurated primary-source guides on AI-driven fraud, clinical AI, and provenance.
Cited in
RegulatorUS Securities and Exchange Commission · Commissioner Hester M. Peirce, remarks before the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee, 8 May 2020.
Reference workThe Routledge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Social Sciences · Routledge
Academic pressRegulation of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technologies · Rosario Girasa · Palgrave Macmillan
Case studyRethink: Smashing the Myths of Women in Business · Andi Simon · a chapter-length case study on Sam
JournalJournal of Space Law
Working paperČelebić et al., Impact of Blockchain Technology on the Payment Management Systems
PatentsForward citations to US 11,354,676 and US 10,210,527 in subsequent filings
Education
2013MA, Media, Culture, and Communication: Technology & Society · New York University
Thesis: iCreated a Monster: Consumer Alienation and the Corporate Alien-Nation in the Digital Age
Thesis: iCreated a Monster: Consumer Alienation and the Corporate Alien-Nation in the Digital Age
2011BA, Anthropology and English (Linguistics) · Colgate University
Advisory
United NationsEmerging technology and illicit trade
World Economic ForumBlockchain and supply chain provenance
Federal Reserve BankDistributed ledger applications in payments
OECDCounterfeit and illicit market data
Awards
2019Newsweek Blockchain Impact Award · to Chronicled for MediLedger
2017Forbes 30 Under 30 · Enterprise Technology
Skills and methods
TechnicalAI and large language models · agentic design · natural language processing · distributed ledgers and applied cryptography · Python, Ruby, Solidity, JavaScript · IoT and hardware design · additive manufacturing
MethodEthnography and participant observation · open-source intelligence · foresight and scenario work · product and protocol design
CertificationsEMT-B and remote EMT · skydiving license · student pilot · advanced open-water diver
EarlierCompetitive skydiver, Connecticut Parachutists, 2006–2010: 700+ jumps, four-way formation, competed internationally. Assistant Director, Othello, Theatre for a New Audience, 2009.
Speaking and commercial enquiries
This page covers research, publications, and institutional work. For keynotes, Sam is represented by Executive Speakers Bureau.
Speaking and booking →