Neil Gershenfeld is the director of the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Randall Kennedy is a law professor at Harvard and author of many seminal books on race, law, history, culture, and politics. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Anna Frebel is an astronomer and astrophysicist at MIT. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
– Hexclad Cookware: https://hexclad.com/lex and use code LEX to get 10% [...]
Harvey Silverglate is a free speech advocate, co-founder of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Expression, and author of several books on freedom of speech and criminal justice. He is [...]
Stephen Wolfram is a computer scientist, mathematician, theoretical physicist, and the founder of Wolfram Research, a company behind Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram Language, and the Wolfram Physics and [...]
David Pakman is a left-wing progressive political commentator and host of The David Pakman Show. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Robert Playter is CEO of Boston Dynamics, a legendary robotics company that over 30 years has created some of the most elegant, dextrous, and simply amazing robots ever built, including the humanoid [...]
Manolis Kellis is a computational biologist at MIT. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Simone Giertz is an inventor, designer, engineer, and roboticist famous for a combination of humor and brilliant creative design in the systems and products she creates. Please support this podcast [...]
Max Tegmark is a physicist and AI researcher at MIT, co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, and author of Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Please support this podcast [...]
Edward Frenkel is a mathematician at UC Berkeley working on the interface of mathematics and quantum physics. He is the author of Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality. Please support this [...]
Paul Rosolie is a conservationist, explorer, author, filmmaker, real life Tarzan, and founder of Junglekeepers which today protects over 50,000 acres of threatened habitat. Please support this [...]
Eliezer Yudkowsky is a researcher, writer, and philosopher on the topic of superintelligent AI. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind GPT-4, ChatGPT, DALL-E, Codex, and many other state-of-the-art AI technologies. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Dr. Shannon Curry is a clinical and forensic psychologist who conducts research, therapy, and clinical evaluation pertaining to trauma, violence, and relationships. She testified in the Johnny Depp [...]
At the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan, one athlete pulled a move that, as far as we know, no one else had ever attempted.
In this episode, first aired in the Spring of 2016, we tell you about Surya [...]
In 2021, editor Alex Neason's grandfather passed away. On his funeral program, she learned the name of his father for the first time: Wilson Howard. Not Neason. Howard. And when she asked her family [...]
Foreign enemies have seldom brought war to U.S. soil… right? In this episode from 2017, we tell you strange stories of foreign enemies landing on our shore.
From bombs floating across the country [...]
At first glance, Golden Balls was just like all the other game shows — quick-witted host, flashy set, suspenseful music. But underneath all that, each episode asked a very serious question: can you [...]
Heaven and hell, Judgement Day, monotheism — these ideas all came from one ancient Persian religion: Zoroastrianism. Also: Sky Burials. Zoroastrians put their dead on top of a structure called The [...]
Abortion pills — a combo of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol — are on notice: on April 7, 2023, a federal judge said the FDA’s approval of mifepristone was invalid. And then, not more [...]
How much does knowledge cost? While that sounds like an abstract question, the answer is surprisingly specific: $3,096,988,440.00. That’s how much the business of publishing scientific and academic [...]
Tuesday afternoon, summer of 2017: Scotty Hatton and Scottie Wightman made a decision to help someone in need and both paid a price for their actions that day — actions that have led to a legal, [...]
Cat Jaffee didn’t necessarily think of herself as someone who loved being alone. But then, the pandemic hit. And she got diagnosed with cancer. Actually, those two things happened on the exact same [...]
How do you fix a word that’s broken? A word we need when we bump into someone on the street, or break someone’s heart. In our increasingly disconnected secular world, “sorry” has been [...]
Tiny buttons have such a hold on us. They can be portals to power, freedom, and destruction. Today, with the help of buttons, we tell you about taking charge of the little things in life, about [...]
This week we examine one of nature's most humble creations: crabs. Turns out when you look closely at these little scuttlers, things get surprisingly existential — about how to come into being, how [...]
First aired in 2015, this is an episode about social media, and how, when we talk online, things can quickly go south. But do they have to? In the earlier days of Facebook, we met with a group of [...]
After years of being publicly shamed for “fleecing” the taxpayers with their frivolous and obscure studies, scientists decided to hit back with… an awards show?! This episode, we gate-crash the [...]
Original broadcast date: August 26, 2022. Everything is not what it seems. We can easily disguise ourselves in both the digital and physical world. This hour, TED speakers explore the ways we go [...]
It's easy to focus on the nuances that get lost in translation, but what about the insights that are found? This hour, TED speakers reveal what we gain by adapting and translating information. Guests [...]
Original broadcast date: January 21, 2022. Fiction can serve as a window into multiple realities—to imagine different futures or understand our own past. This hour, author and TED speaker Dave [...]
When problems arise, it's tempting to wait for someone else to address it. But sometimes, the only person who can fix it... is you. This hour, TED speakers share ideas on how to do it yourself. [...]
Original broadcast date: October 7, 2022. We encounter friction every day — in all its forms — as we brush our teeth, go for a jog, argue with a friend. This hour, TED speakers explore how this [...]
Original broadcast date: July 15, 2022. "The birds and the bees" may be a euphemism for human reproduction, but procreation of actual winged animals is far wilder. This hour, TED speakers explore how [...]
Shirin Neshat is seen as a powerful voice for Iranian women...but her art has never been shown in Iran. She speaks on life in exile and how her acclaimed and controversial art is shaped by politics. [...]
Original broadcast date: January 7, 2022. New innovations in gene and stem cell technology have the power to shape ecosystems and even change humanity. This hour, TED speakers share the breakthroughs [...]
When times get tough, how do we keep our spirits up? In part 3 of our series Mind, Body, Spirit, TED speakers tell stories of salvaging the human psyche and rekindling a zest for life. Guests include [...]
We know it's important to listen to our bodies and trust how we feel — but it's not always easy. In part 2 of our series Mind, Body, Spirit, TED speakers explore ideas about movement, pleasure and [...]
For millennia, humans have debated the mind, body, spirit connection. But today, the phrase sounds trite — a hallmark of the #selfcare industry. Over the next three episodes, TED speakers will [...]
Original broadcast date: March 22, 2022. In the last century, human life expectancy has doubled. This hour, we talk with writer Steven Johnson on the many breakthroughs that made this possible — [...]
Original broadcast date: June 3, 2022. Humor can lighten the mood. But it can also provoke, cajole and inspire. This hour, TED speakers share how we can wield humor as a tool across all aspects of [...]
Original broadcast date: November 12, 2021. We hear calls for systemic change, but what does that look like? This hour, TED speakers share stories of taking on institutions — from schools, to [...]
Every year, the world’s leaders gather for the UN climate change conference. At Cop28, they will be faced with two stark warnings from scientists: we are likely to breach 1.5C warming above [...]
Since it was introduced to the UK in 1850, Japanese knotweed has gone from novel ornamental plant to rampant invasive species. Madeleine Finlay speaks to journalist Samanth Subramanian about the huge [...]
We now know that global temperatures are likely to temporarily rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in the next five years. Breaching this crucial threshold will give humanity an [...]
A first-of-its-kind non-hormonal drug to treat hot flushes has been approved in the US. Targeting connections in the brain that change during menopause, the drug, called fezolinetant, could provide [...]
More than 40 leading scientists have resigned en masse from the editorial board of a top science journal in protest at what they describe as the ‘greed’ of the publisher. Ian Sample speaks to [...]
The pioneering IVF procedure known as mitochondrial donation therapy (MDT) could prevent children from being born with devastating mitochondrial diseases. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Darren [...]
Psychedelic drugs have long been been used for their mind-altering effects. Now, they are making their way into western medicine as a treatment for mental health disorders. From July, psychiatrists [...]
For the first time, researchers have found a way to non-invasively translate a person’s thoughts into text. Using fMRI scans and an AI-based decoder trained on a precursor to ChatGPT, the system [...]
As the planet warms, and intense heatwaves become the norm, our urban environments need a radical rethink to keep them habitable. So what do we want the cities of the future to look like? In the [...]
The environmental law charity ClientEarth and 13 other groups headed into a Flemish court this week in an effort to stop Ineos building a petrochemical plant that would be the biggest project of its [...]
Experts and campaigners have been pointing out the racial disparities in maternal healthcare for years. The latest report to highlight the issue comes from the House of Commons women and equalities [...]
Sliced supermarket bread, ham, cheese, crisps, a fruit-flavoured yoghurt and a fizzy drink. If this sounds like a standard lunch, you’re not alone. The average person in the UK gets more than 50% [...]
Madeleine Finlay speaks to science correspondent Linda Geddes about trying out a virtual reality game that challenges you to keep your heart-rate down while facing a terrifying monster, why it could [...]
The European Space Agency’s long-awaited Juice Mission is about to blast off for Jupiter’s moons. Its goal: to find out whether the oceans below their icy surfaces could be capable of supporting [...]
Installing artificial grass is becoming an increasingly popular way to achieve a neat, green lawn without much effort. But with environmental and potential health costs associated with plastic turf [...]
