The Future of Everything

They make a remarkable array of chemicals to survive the world around them. One engineer is using that knowledge to help people live better. When things aren’t going well for humans and other ambulatory creatures, they simply move on to a new location, a new life. For plants, it’s different, says chemical engineer Elizabeth Sattely, who studies the evolutionary adaptations plants make to survive. Unable to migrate, plants must make do with the hand that’s dealt them. And sometimes that hand is not very good. The soils where they are rooted can lack nutrients or play host to pathogens. The air can be polluted or too arid. This fact of life, however, has given rise to a remarkable breadth of evolutionary adaptations plants use to make the best of their surroundings. They produce powerful small molecules that help them get more nutrients from the soil or air. And, they partner with microbes that help them live. Sattely hopes to better understand and, possibly, employ these adaptations for human benefit by making crops more robust to environmental challenges and by learning how the small molecules plants create impact human health. She says we might even turn plants into biofactories that produce medicines and other valuable chemicals. Join host Russ Altman and Sattely for a deeper look at the remarkable world of plant biochemistry. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In breast cancer pathology, a 2 percent chance of malignancy is the accepted threshold at which a radiologist refers the patient for further study. In reality, that threshold varies among doctors; some are more conservative, others less so. The result is either more false positives, in which a healthy patient worries unnecessarily they have cancer, or more-worrisome false negatives, in which a patient is told they are fine when they are not.One researcher working to reduce that gap is Stanford’s Ross Shachter. He is a professor of management science and engineering and an expert in using probability to improve decision making. Though Shachter is an engineer, he applies his approaches not to operational efficiency or business management, but to the high-stakes field of mammography, where decisions often have life or death consequences.He says that probability and decision making theory could be integrated into artificial intelligence applications that could help doctors better evaluate patient options, outcomes and preferences to improve care.Join host Russ Altman and Ross Shachter for a look at how engineering and AI are changing the world of breast cancer diagnosis. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In cancer detection, could a blood test replace a biopsy? Once, when a cancer was suspected, the next move often involved a biopsy – literally cutting out human tissue to ascertain malignancy. But that highly invasive model is now being overshadowed by the promise of “liquid biopsies.” In these non-invasive approaches, blood, spinal fluid and other bodily liquids are drawn and tested for the presence of cancer cells, bits of DNA or other molecules that are the unmistakable markers of serious disease. Often, such non-invasive biopsies can be done before clinical symptoms appear. Ash Alizadeh is an authority on the rapidly evolving technologies and techniques of oncology. He says that information is reshaping not only how we detect cancer but also how we treat it. The data we gather about any given cancer is being combined with knowledge about the patients themselves, leading to highly personalized approaches that did not exist just a few years ago. No two cancers, nor two patients, are exactly the same, Alizadeh says. Cancer cells grow differently in each patient and cancer treatments should be personalized accordingly. Join host Russ Altman and Ash Alizadeh as they explore the exciting new age of cancer diagnosis and treatment on this episode of The Future of Everything. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Women face many roadblocks to careers in data science and other STEM disciplines. One Stanford professor is out to change perceptions and realities for women in these fields. It was in 2015 when Margot Gerritsen was asked to speak at a data conference with not a single other woman on the program that she knew that something had to be done to get women into the field. As then-director of the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME), Gerritsen knew more than a thing or two about data science and became determined to change the male-dominated culture. This determination led to the creation of the wildly popular “Women in Data Science Conference.” In putting the first agenda together, she was insistent that the conference be not about the problematic state of women in the field, but on the exceptional science of the attendees. Now into its fifth iteration, with more than 100,000 participants worldwide, online and at satellite events spreading into six continents, Gerritsen and her co-directors of the conference have inspired women across the planet to enter the sciences and provided a platform for them to highlight their work. In addition to the conference, WiDS now includes a datathon, a podcast that Gerritsen hosts, and ongoing education programs. The results have been, quite literally, life changing for many. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How do new technologies and techniques for altering DNA get used? And who gets to use them? In recent years, the development of inexpensive genetic sequencing and easy gene editing technologies has given rise to a community of non-academic, amateur researchers who like to refer to themselves, only half-jokingly, as “biohackers.” But, says Mildred Cho, a research professor who has published frequently about bioethics, such communities are not bound by traditional “first-do-no-harm” ethical norms that professional biologists and physicians adhere to. There is, for instance, a group of such do-it-yourself researchers pursuing a low-cost insulin substitute that is free of patent protection; they hope to bring that life-saving medicine to millions who cannot afford it. On the flip side, Cho says, there are also bio-hobbyists who like to do things “just for fun” that could present considerable danger to society. “Would you want your neighbor recreating polio in his garage?” she asks, rhetorically, adding that these deep and challenging concerns are better addressed sooner rather than later. Join bioethicists Mildred Cho and The Future of Everything host Russ Altman for a provocative discussion about the shifting landscape in the ethics of biological research. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

An expert on air quality talks about the hidden dangers inside our homes and offers some helpful tips on what you can do to reduce your exposure. We all know about the decades-long battle to improve air quality outdoors, but Stanford environmental engineer Lynn Hildemann says that while much progress has been made in that regard, it may have caused us to look past the pollutants in our own homes. Hildemann, who studies air pollution and its effects inside and outside the home, says that chemicals and microparticles from cooking, furniture, carpets, cleaning products and good-old household dust represent the latest air quality battleground. She says it’s such a big concern because most Americans spend some 90 percent of their lives indoors. Hildemann offers a few small steps we can all take to improve air quality at home. Using the ventilation hood when cooking is a great first step. Opening the windows whenever possible is another. And, opting for easily cleanable hardwood floors over carpet can help, too. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A mechanical engineer explains how more and better data is helping to create new prosthetics unlike any before. For years prosthetic limbs were merely functional devices, but recent advances in robotics and neuroscience are transforming the very meaning of the word "prosthetic." Steve Collins is a mechanical engineer who is helping to lead that transformation to the benefit of people who've had an amputation, stroke or battlefield injury. The field has come a long way since the days of strap-on wooden legs. Collins says that, rather than trying to merely mimic what the body does, he's working on new ways of discovering prosthetic limb designs that outperform unimpaired bodies. His team uses advanced robotic systems that record and analyze the wearer's response, continually tuning their mechanical assistance to optimize performance and make them better than ever before. Join host Russ Altman and Steve Collins for a glimpse into the changing world of prosthetics on the latest episode The Future of Everything radio show. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Russ Altman: Today, on The Future of Everything, the future of the microbiome. Now, the microbiome has gotten a lot of attention in the last few years. Now, what is a microbiome? I guess we will learn more, but for the purposes of this discussion, it’s the full set of microbial organisms, chiefly bacteria, but maybe others, that live in different niches within our body. Our mouth, nasal cavity, skin folds, everywhere that has contact with the outside world. The gut microbiome is one of those microbiomes and it’s the community of bacteria living in our digestive system, not necessarily related to disease, but as a normal part of our physiology. We have long known that there is a lot of bacteria in our digestive tract and we know, for example, that they help us digest our food. That’s what we were taught in medical school many decades ago when I was in medical school. We also know that when we treat infections with antibiotics, it can alter these species because these species are sitting in your gut and they also can be very susceptible to antibiotics. So when I treat a patient for urinary tract infection or for pneumonia, not only am I killing the bacteria, hopefully, that’s causing the infection, but I’m probably altering the microbiome of that patient in ways that might lead to some symptoms. They might have some digestive issues that are associated with that antibiotic. Now, it’s become clear that the bacteria living in our gut have much more complicated relationship with our health and with our disease. They seem to be involved in our immune system. They seem to be changing sometimes in both acute and chronic disease. The idea has even emerged that there’s a healthy microbiome, the set of bacteria that you would love to have and host in your bowel and that there might be treatments for some diseases that involve changing the microbiome to get it to be more healthy, so to speak. This has gotten probably the most publicity in the idea of fecal transplants. Yes, if you’re not familiar with that, you heard correctly. This is the idea where poop, forgive the terminology, the technical terminology, poop from healthy people is introduced into the digestive tract of people with disease in order to help them normalize their microbiome to hopefully get it back into a healthy state. So this is getting serious. Ami Bhatt is a Professor of Medicine and Genetics at Stanford University. She has a medical specialty of hematology and studies the human microbiome, mostly in the gut, and has developed new ways to measure the presence of bacteria in the human body and ways to interpret these for health and disease. Ami, you specialize in hematology, the study of blood and blood diseases. How does a hematologist get interested in bacteria that live in the gut? Ami Bhatt: So, thanks a lot for having me, Russ. It’s a pleasure to be here. I actually first became interested in the bacteria viruses and fungi that live in and on us, as I think many young people did which was by watching a TV show. I remember being about, I don’t know, nine or ten years old, and I was left at home for the first time, for like ten minutes by myself or something like that, and so I turned on the TV. My younger brother and I were watching a television show about germs and, they showed these horrifying microscopic images of all of the bacteria that are squirming around everywhere. And I thought, “Wow, this is fantastic and also very gross, and we should really learn more about this.” If you fast forward many years later, part of the reason I became interested as a hematologist and oncologist in viruses and bacteria was because I learned that viruses can cause cancers in some cases. And as you well know, there are viruses that cause well-known cancers like liver cancer. Liver cancer is caused, in some cases, by a hepatitis virus. We know that the human papilloma virus causes cervical cancer and other cancers. And I thought, “Wow, there are all of these relatively simple organisms. They don’t have many genes.” You know, a virus can’t even live by itself. It requires a human cell in these cases in order to replicate. It’s amazing that such simple organisms can alter the biology of such complex organisms like us. That was how I ended up getting interested in bacteria viruses and fungi that live in and on us. Of course, first I learned about them as kind of bad guys but there are trillions of microorganisms that live in and on us and most of them are probably not bad guys. Many of them are probably actually quite helpful and so I’ve taken a more holistic view of what bugs mean to us. Russ Altman: So tell me, what are we finding when we look at the microbiome? How many of these are old friends that we’ve known for years and how many surprises are there where we’re saying, “Wow, we had no idea that this bacteria species was living in us.” And then how do we figure out what they’re doing, good or bad? Ami Bhatt: Yeah, this is an incredibly complex question in

Once the core American curriculum meant reading, writing and arithmetic, but Stanford professor Mehran Sahami says we might soon have to add a fourth skill to that list, “coding.” Sahami thinks deeply about such matters. He’s the leading force behind recent changes in Stanford’s computer science curriculum. He notes that it may not be surprising that more students are choosing to major in computer science than ever before, but what might turn heads is the changing face and intellectual landscape of the field. With concerted effort, more women and minorities, and even students from traditional liberal arts and sciences backgrounds, are venturing into computer science. Sahami says coding has become more than just videogames, social media and smartphone apps. The field is an intellectual endeavor taking on the biggest issues of our day. And in pursuit of tackling big issues, computer professionals also need to be aware of ethical issues that arise, such as the implications of data-driven decision making, respect for personal privacy, the long-term impacts of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, and the role of large platforms like Google, Facebook and Apple on free speech issues. Sahami says that computers and algorithms are now part of the fabric of everyday life and how the future plays out will depend upon realizing more cultural and gender diversity in computer science classrooms and encouraging multidisciplinary thinking throughout computer science. Join host Russ Altman and expert in computer science education Mehran Sahami for an inspiring journey through the computer science curriculum of tomorrow. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Russ Altman: Today, on The Future of Everything the future of Silicon Valley. Periodically, in human history every now and then there is an unusual mix of opportunity, capital, talent, technology in a geographical region that concentrates this and creates perhaps an unusual period of creativity, invention and sometimes great impact on a global scale. Far beyond, what you might expect from that local geography. I like to think about the Italian Art Renaissance in the 15th and 16th century, focused in Florence. So, removed from Rome, the seat of Italian power and the church power. The Medici family and others provided capital. There was a network of business connections there was a good supply of marble, and paint supplies. And, things were advancing, and then a few masters Giotto, da Vinci, Michelangelo emerged from this pool of kind of opportunity as masters. They integrated the lessons from the past, they added their own vision and there was this revolution in art that seemed to advance from static 2-D depictions, mostly of bible scenes to dynamic three-dimensional art that many people, even today are captivated by. Books have been written about Florence. Why then? Why there? We’re not gonna do that today. But I love that it is related to the Bubonic plague. And the fact that one-third of European people died from this terrible disease. But that took pressure off the farmers who could then produce extra food. Yadda yadda yadda. Now, we have the growth of Silicon Valley. Now, I don’t wanna push this too hard. This was not an art, and it’s not clearly about art, or about cultural things. But there was digital technologies and there’s a somewhat parallel story. Removed from the seats of power in Washington D.C and New York. The power and influence. There was this West Coast place which actually even 50 years ago was mostly fruit farms. But companies arose, Hewlett Packard, Intel. There was this University, Stanford University. Disclaimer: I’m an employee of Stanford University that provided a growing technological work force in both engineering and science. These masters weren’t artists — far from it. Although, well we could discuss that. But they were industrialists. You had Hewlett and Packard, you had the Gordon Moore, and the Intel founders. Steve Jobs and then of course Jerry Yang from Yahoo!, Sergey Brin, Larry Page. And recently now we know about the founders of Facebook, Uber, Twitter, etc. A remarkable concentration of talent, opportunity, technology. Creating a singularity, you could argue that in this area that was just a fruit farming area. So, Silicon Valley perhaps has helped usher in an era of AI, machine learning and the gig economy. Now, as I said I don’t want to oversell this analogy and let’s also remember what happened to Florence. It did not maintain its preeminence in art. Wars and important changing trade patterns reduced the available capital, reduced it as the center of the world in many ways. The reformation changed the religious dynamics. The Catholic church had various reactions against humanism. The pendulum and perhaps the luck of Florence ran out. And Florence became once again a local geographic region. It’s great to visit, it’s great to eat there but it is not really particularly, the center of anything right now. What does the future hold for Silicon Valley? John Markoff is a fellow, former fellow at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study and Behavioral Sciences. He’s a current fellow and research affiliate at the Human-centered Artificial Intelligence Institute at Stanford. He has been a science writer at the New York Times for more than 20, 30 years. He’s covered the general computer industry, Silicon Valley in particular during this time that I just described of great innovation and disruption both in good and bad ways. John, you have written that Silicon Valley may be over optimistic, both at the rate of expected future progress, and also the benefits that that progress will bring to society. Perhaps it’s peddling some things. How do you see this manifesting? And is it a byproduct of hyperbolic marketing, purely? Or does it indicate potentially the beginning of the end for this period of Silicon Valley flourishing innovation. John Markoff: Boy, I love your analogy to Florence. Because I think about that a lot and I think about it particularly in the context of fragility. How fragile is the Valley. Nothing lasts forever. Clearly the arc of technological innovation in the last couple of centuries has been from east to west. There’s always the implication that it may continue to go west perhaps to China. You know, the question of where Silicon Valley came from is a really interesting one as well — you brought that up — what’s new, I mean I always thought there’s a lot of serendipity. I mean Shockley came here — Russ Altman: Right. John Markoff: — famously because his mother was here. What if his mother had been in Iowa? Russ Altman: Exactly. John Markoff: And then there’s th

Computers are everywhere and humans are engaging with them in nearly everything they do. Knowing this, the question becomes: How do we design a world around us so that technology makes life better, not worse? James Landay, an expert in human-computer interaction, says the key to thoughtfully integrating humans with digital technology is to put people first. This perspective draws on a philosophy known as human-centered or user-centered design. Within this approach, the first priority is to understand the problem vexing a particular population by observing, interviewing, and working with that population. Only once the problem is clear does the development of a solution begin. Typically, engineers and technologists have done the opposite. They’ve worked to develop the coolest technology they can think of, and then once it’s ready look around for a way to use it. With human needs at the forefront, Landay’s research focuses on finding ways to use artificial intelligence technology to augment human performance. His current projects range from leveraging technology to encourage positive behavior change, to enabling kids to stay engaged in their education, to helping professionals stay healthy while feeling more connected to their co-workers and workplace. Tune in to this episode of The Future of Everything to hear more about how Landay draws on user-centered design to develop technology that supports human needs. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Biomedical data scientist Sylvia Plevritis is an expert in computational modeling of cancer risk and treatment options hidden in the remarkable quantity of data available today. Rarely is a tumor made up of a single mutation, she says, but more commonly of a mix of different mutations. Such heterogenous tumors may require complex combinations of drugs to produce the most effective treatments. That’s where computers can help. Using mathematical simulations, Plevritis is helping patients and their doctors understand the genetic makeup of a given cancer for the purpose of identifying drug combinations that stand a better chance of success. Some of the models Plevritis works with can be run in an hour or less and yet return invaluable guidance that can save a patient’s life. Plevritis says these computational approaches can even help those without cancer understand their inherent genetic risks to assess whether and when additional screening or risk-reducing interventions are warranted. Join host Russ Altman and biomedical data scientist Sylvia Plevritis as they dive into the promising intersection of computers and cancer care. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Political scientist Jeremy Weinstein has worked at both the White House and the United Nations. In both jobs, he encountered the ethical and policy concerns that new technologies can present to policymakers. As one example, he points to the fierce debate between Apple and national security experts over end-to-end encryption and the challenges investigators faced in accessing data on the iPhones of the perpetrators of a terrorist attack in San Bernardino in 2015. He wants universities, like Stanford, to educate a new breed of engineer that he refers to as a “civic-minded technologist.” These engineers would consider ways in which technological advances could serve the public good, while also thinking critically about the impacts of new technologies on society. In this spirit, Weinstein and two Stanford colleagues, Rob Reich and Mehran Sahami, have begun teaching a new course on the ethics and policy of technology to a large number of undergraduate CS majors. He says it’s critical that these nascent technologists learn from the start to think about the larger implications of their work – even before they write a single line of code. This is because code itself is not value neutral, and technologists must be able to recognize what values are being encoded in the programs they write as well as the competing values that might be traded off. This kind of preparation, he says, will help us as a society to more effectively realize the benefits and minimize the potential harms inherent in new technologies. In his own research, Weinstein is applying his unique perspective to challenges of global poverty and human migration, where, he says, advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing our understanding of two of society’s fundamental problems. Join host Russ Altman and political scientist Jeremy Weinstein for an in-depth look at the ethical and political implications of technology. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Once avoidance was the only answer, but a leading allergist says that advances in desensitizing allergies are challenging common convention. Food allergy expert Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, says that as many as one in ten adults in the U.S. has a food allergy, many without knowing it. With consequences that range from mild to serious (including lethal anaphylaxis), it is imperative that medical scientists become better adept at spotting food allergies and ultimately at helping patients cope with allergies. Nadeau notes that while a cure remains elusive, it’s a "moonshot issue" worthy of pursuit. She has seen positive results with incremental desensitization therapies that build a patient's tolerance for foods that cause allergic reactions. In addition, new gene therapies are just emerging that are offering a glimmer of promise for those whose diets and lifestyles have been impacted by food allergies. Join host Russ Altman — once allergic to seafood but now able to indulge in lobster thanks to desensitization therapy — and allergist Kari Nadeau for a look ahead at the hopeful future for people with severe food allergies. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can we reap the benefits of artificial intelligence while also protecting our personal information? From scheduling appointments to setting the thermostat to ordering pizza, virtual assistants are growing more commonplace by the day. Stanford professor Monica Lam says they will only become more entrenched as their capabilities grow and their voice-recognition skills become more accurate. Such developments are welcomed by many who rely upon Alexa and Siri and other virtual assistants. But it is also troubling to those, like Lam, who worry that privacy concerns and lack of competition put too much power in the hands of a few companies. Lam is an advocate for a more open approach. “If there is no open competition, then you are kind of stuck with whatever these platforms provide for you,” she tells host Russ Altman in the latest episode of The Future of Everything radio show from Sirius XM. Lam thinks a lot about the future of privacy. She says we can have both the AI and privacy at the same time, but first she’d like more options in the marketplace and for those who dominate the market to be less insular than they are today. What’s needed is an “infrastructure of privacy” that returns control of data to the rightful owners: the users who created it in the first place. The key to that, she says, is choice. Tune in to this episode of The Future of Everything to hear more about how Lam’s open-source effort to develop and share virtual assistant technology is keeping user privacy at the forefront. You can listen to The Future of Everything on iTunes, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In-depth statistical analyses show time and again that subtle, unconscious bias is pervasive in the American justice system. The bigger question, however, is what to do about it? Sharad Goel is an expert in computational social science – that is, using computers and data to examine and address policy issues. He says unconscious bias is subtle but entrenched in American life, and nowhere are the consequences more concerning than in criminal justice. Goel has analyzed hundreds of millions of crime records to show, for instance, that black drivers are pulled over more than white drivers and that judges demand bail too often. He says the data suggest that up to 30 percent more people could be released on their own recognizance without adversely affecting crime rates. Goel is developing risk assessment tools to assist in high-stakes decision making. He cautions, however, that algorithms are an aid, not a panacea. They should be used to inform decision making and to help decision makers to make fairer choices, but not to actually make the decisions. Listen in as host Russ Altman and expert in social data science Sharad Goel discuss bias and transparency in the criminal justice system. You can listen to The Future of Everything on iTunes, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Stanford’s Paul Yock was a young interventional cardiologist, he was frustrated by the complex, two-person process required to deliver life-saving stents. So, he invented a better way. His Rapid Exchange stenting and balloon angioplasty system, one of several inventions Yock is known for internationally, can be managed by just a single operator, making procedures like stent placement faster and safer. Yock is a man of many talents. He is a doctor, a professor of bioengineering and of mechanical engineering, and an innovator who combines these many interests to solve problems in healthcare. He says that the aha moments work beautifully when they come, but they are too often based in luck. For the rest of us, there is a better and more consistent path to transformative medical tools he calls the biodesign process. It starts, first, with a deep understanding of the medical need. The next step is brainstorming and iteration, preferably by non-hierarchical, multidisciplinary teams of doctors, engineers and business people. Diversity of insights and expertise leads to better inventions, Yock says. Join host Russ Altman and physician-inventor Paul Yock for an exploration of innovation as a process that can be learned and repeated. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Margaret Brandeau may carry a business card that reads Professor of Management Science and Engineering, but her expertise is in using complex systems models to solve challenges in public health policy. For instance, she recently created a sophisticated computer model of the national opioid crisis, which led her to the stark –and surprising – conclusion that it may take a short-term rise in deaths to ultimately reduce them. She didn’t come to that conclusion lightly, but made no less than 10 models of drug-user behaviors to analyze interventions. Nonetheless, each model led her to the same basic conclusions. First, policies are needed that lead to cutbacks in the number of prescriptions of opioids for pain management. Second, fewer prescriptions of opioids for pain management will cause some individuals to turn to more-deadly heroin. Third, because of this unintended consequence, it is essential to also scale up treatment for opioid-addicted individuals. But her fourth finding was the most sobering of all: No one of these policies will suffice; they must all be combined if we are to curb the opioid epidemic – and the epidemic is not likely to abate significantly anytime soon. Mathematical modeling is an art, Brandeau says, but it’s a powerful art that is only going to grow in influence. Her advice for those looking to solve big problems – from reducing sodium intake to battling the return of measles – is to start out simple. Know what question you want to answer and create a model that captures just the most salient elements of the problem. Things will flow from there. Join host Russ Altman and mathematical modeling expert Margaret Brandeau for a deep look at the many ways algorithms are changing our understanding of and approaches to the challenges of public health. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

By last count, there are 5,000 genetic diseases in the human body. A few are merely annoying, but far more are devastating and without cure. In the last decade, much popular attention has been focused on the potential for stem cells and gene therapies to cure these once-intractable diseases. While the promise is clear, Tony Oro cautions patience. Oro is a dermatologist and associate director of the Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine at Stanford. He is a leading expert in the scientific and ethical dilemmas such therapies raise. He and many others say cures are close at hand, but there is still much to be determined before these therapies can be pronounced both effective and safe. Join host Russ Altman and medical ethicist Tony Oro for an inspiring but cautionary look at the promise of stem cell and gene therapies. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brain cancers are known to be elusive and clever killers, but Michelle Monje, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences, is helping to find new treatments through a better understanding of how healthy brain cells develop and how cancers often hijack those very same processes in order to grow themselves. Monje says that the last decade has seen tremendous progress in our understanding of how cancers thrive and in the development of new drugs and therapies to kill the killers. Unfortunately, many chemotherapy drugs powerful enough to kill cancers also cause lasting impairment of the patient’s cognitive abilities, a condition known among doctors and patients as “chemobrain.” Monje is on the hunt for more effective and safer treatments for brain cancer. One exciting development, she says, is a quickly evolving field known as immunotherapy, which harnesses the body’s own immune system to recognize and to kill cancers. She’s also exploring a new drug that can help specific brain cells, known as glia, counteract the harmful effects of chemobrain. Join host Russ Altman and brain cancer expert Michelle Monje for an inspiring look at new and safer treatments for brain cancer. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The current process for diagnosing autism requires no less than 10 hours of intensive doctor-to-patient observation. It is expensive and time-consuming, says autism expert Dennis Wall, an associate professor of pediatrics and of biomedical data science at Stanford. Wall is developing new ways to tackle the problem. He says advances in machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence focused on training computers to perform important medical tasks, stand to shake up the field. He’s developing computer models that can spot autism by watching just a few minutes of video of a child at play in their natural home environment. With these technologies, diagnosis happens in as little as four minutes. In addition, Wall says, scoring can be done by non-experts, rather than highly trained psychiatrists, lowering the costs further. He thinks such AI models could reduce bottlenecks and get kids with autism into treatment sooner, a key to maximizing the treatment’s effect. Beyond diagnosis, Wall says that digital technologies together with AI are also changing therapeutics. For example, he’s developing augmented reality applications, one for Google Glass, that can help autistic kids better recognize and learn emotional cues – anger, joy, sadness – in the faces of others, a particular challenge for those with autism. Another that goes beyond the wearable form factor to even more ubiquitous technologies – your phone – is an app that can teach social skills through fun but poignant AI-enabled games, such as charades, where imitation advances the child’s social skills as the AI engine tracks progress automatically. Join host Russ Altman and autism expert Dennis Wall for a peek into the rapidly changing world of autism diagnosis and treatment. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mechanical engineer Xiaolin Zheng really likes to burn things, but she is more like a modern-day Prometheus than a pyromaniac. She uses combustion to create minute nanoparticles of various metal oxides that have many practical and valuable uses in today’s world. For instance, she has created nanoparticles that can turn water into hydrogen peroxide using only energy from the sun. Hydrogen peroxide is a powerful disinfectant that kills microbes and removes other pollutants from water. Zheng imagines creating inexpensive, portable, solar-powered water purifiers to help the two to three billion people in the world who lack access to plentiful potable water. Join host Russ Altman and Xiaolin Zheng for a fascinating look at the benefits of combustion. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In safety engineering, ergonomic differences between men and women are important. Conventional seat belts do not fit pregnant women properly and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of fetal death related to maternal trauma. Analyses of sex differences have led to the development of pregnant crash test dummies that enhance safety in automobile testing and design. In medicine, osteoporosis has been conceptualized primarily as a women's disease, yet after a certain age men account for nearly a third of osteoporosis-related hip fractures. Tragically, when men break their hips, they tend to die. We don't know why. Analyzing the interaction between sex and gender in osteoporosis has led to new diagnostics for men, and the search for better treatments is underway. In these and many other cases, historian Londa Schiebinger points out that if we don't consider sex or gender analysis, past bias may be perpetuated into the future, even when governments, universities and companies have implemented policies to foster equality. The big question now, she says, is: How can humans automate processes that also contribute to creating a fair and equal society? Schiebinger highlights examples of efforts where computer scientists are working to create mathematically rigorous definitions of fairness in order to develop and optimize algorithms that guarantee fairness. There is much work to be done, but as Scheibinger sees it, there is a big opportunity for these algorithms as well as the robotic systems they will enable to challenge and eventually reconfigure gender norms. Join host Russ Altman and historian of science Londa Schiebinger for a closer look at how to employ methods of sex and gender analysis as a resource to create new knowledge and stimulate novel design. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Stanford radiation oncologist, Billy Loo, says that a new generation of radiation therapy technology called PHASER will be so fast that it can even compensate for the patient moving during treatment. High-energy X-rays will be fired so quickly, like a flash photograph, that motion is frozen and radiation can be more precisely focused on tumors. His research team is also finding that such ultra-fast “FLASH” radiation kills cancer cells through new biological mechanisms while causing less damage to healthy tissues. Loo says that while radiation benefits two-thirds of U.S. patients, half of patients with cancer around the world lack access to these curative technologies. To address issues of access, the Stanford Radiation Oncology and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory team is designing PHASER to be a mobile unit that will fit in a standard cargo shipping container and can be powered by solar energy. Join host Russ Altman and radiation oncologist Billy Loo for a discussion of advances in radiation therapy that are giving new optimism to cancer patients and others. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Carlos Bustamante is an expert in genomics—the study of genetic variation and its effects on the living world. He says genomics holds tremendous promise but, so far, virtually all sequenced DNA comes from European blood lines and this presents a problem. Without greater diversity in the genomic data that is collected, he notes that we cannot fully reap the benefits of this knowledge, particularly in areas such as healthcare. "Genomics is the new oil," Bustamante says, of the opportunities that lie ahead. It's being used for everything from studying rare diseases to developing more effective drugs. Before its potential can be fully realized,however, genomics will have to address its diversity problem. The more genetic variants that are represented in the genomic data collected, the better equipped we'll be to understand and improve human health. Join host Russ Altman and geneticist Carlos Bustamante for a peek into the wonders of genomics. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why do well-off public schools often demand that parents supplement school programs with personal contributions? Why do many rare diseases receive the lion’s share of donor attention and money? Is basic science being driven by the whims of big donors? These are questions that keep Stanford political philosopher Rob Reich up at night. Reich says that philanthropy is at an ethical crossroads in which the heart often leads the head in determining which causes get showered with money while other, perhaps more deserving, ones go without. Join host Russ Altman and Rob Reich for a look at the promise and peril of philanthropy and what can be done to make it serve rather than subvert democracy. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Of the many nations that have implemented some measure of digital democracy, none perhaps has had more success than Estonia. Toomas Ilves, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, would know: He served as president of the Baltic state for two terms. Ilves says that all Estonians have verifiable digital identities and they use them to vote, sign legal documents, order prescription medication, file taxes and more online. Estonian digitization began with schools and banking in the 1990s. Online voting followed in the early 2000s. Today, a third of Estonians vote online. Faith in the system is high, Ilves says. The country has a single voter registry and voters can confirm – and even change – their votes right up to the deadline. Estonia’s latest effort is a comprehensive genome project that will fuel a new era of personalized medicine. Join host Russ Altman and former Estonian President Toomas Ilves for a broad conversation about the challenges and the promise of digital democracy. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In hospitals across the world, the unmet need for end-of-life palliative care threatens to overwhelm the few doctors who are equipped to adequately provide counseling that can help patients die on their own terms. There are just too many patients and too few doctors. Stanford’s Nigam Shah, an expert in medical informatics, says that such scenarios may soon become a thing of the past. Artificial intelligence, founded on tens-of-thousands of data points gathered from millions of patients, is flipping such age-old scripts to change how and with whom care conversations happen. It is but one example of the many ways AI is reshaping medicine, but these major advances are not without ethical concerns, Shah says. Join host Russ Altman and Nigam Shah for in-depth look at the growing influence of “data-driven medicine.” You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The worlds of academic economics and ride sharing are not so far removed – just ask Stanford labor economist Paul Oyer. When Oyer wanted to study the gig economy, he didn’t do it from afar; he became an Uber driver. Oyer says lessons from the gig economy hold deep lessons for the job market for more traditional jobs. Uber’s surge pricing, for instance, is more than a payment structure – it entices Uber drivers to work odd hours or at times of peak demand. He says Uber is constantly reworking its payment structure to ensure that the company and its drivers’ interests are aligned to reduce workforce turnover. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s nothing we haven’t already heard – the news you read is being shaped by the ubiquitous presence of social media. So-called “fake news” spread by bots and social media may continue to influence American elections and, ultimately, democracy. Alex Stamos, the former chief security officer at Facebook and an adjunct professor with Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, explained at a recent live taping of “The Future of Everything” that the emergence of social media has made everyone a potential publisher. “We will never go back to the era in which a small number of people control the flow of information,” Stamos says. While social media can be credited with democratizing the dissemination of information, these platforms have also become a hotbed of false and misleading content spread by domestic and foreign actors. Solving the “fake news” problem is extremely difficult, Stamos explains. “It turns out that regulating social media actually means asking social media companies to regulate people’s freedom of speech.” The danger here, Stamos emphasizes, is that this regulation will be done in a way that benefits the short-term interests of a company and does not uphold basic human rights. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The next job search you conduct will likely be shaped by artificial intelligence. In the age of LinkedIn and Monster.com, job hunters can count on their resumes being screened by non-human intelligence. So what does this mean for the future of hiring? At a recent live taping of the Stanford School of Engineering podcast “The Future of Everything,” Adina Sterling, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business who studies labor markets, said that roughly three-quarters of the job applications received by major companies will be touched in some way by artificial intelligence. Because these hiring bots look for very specific criteria, qualified applicants may be screened out early in the process if their resumes don’t contain “the right buzzwords to get through the filters. It’s just as likely today as it was 20 years ago that a diamond in the rough will be overlooked,” she said. While the use of artificial intelligence allows for gains in efficiency for both job seekers and potential employees, there is the danger that AI algorithms will embody and perpetuate existing bias. Sterling noted that she has been encouraged to see that companies are moving with a lot of caution in the area of AI and hiring. There is a recognition that machines can’t do this work on their own and that, at a minimum, a supervised AI hiring process is necessary. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Earthquakes come in species, says Greg Beroza, professor of geophysics at Stanford and an expert in seismology. There are, of course, the well-known sudden shocks, but there are also “slow earthquakes” that transpire imperceptibly in contrast to the obvious temblors, but which can measure 7 on the Richter Scale or more — a major quake by any standard. Beroza knows about slow and other species of earthquakes because of a recent explosion in the availability of seismic data recorded by an expansive network of sensors throughout California and elsewhere around the world. One hundred times each second, 24 hours a day, every day, each of these sensors records seismic data. What they reveal is reshaping our understanding of earthquakes. The goal, he says, is not necessarily to predict earthquakes — an ideal that may never be achieved — but simply to understand them better. Beroza says that data can help prepare us for “The Big One.” Join host Russ Altman and earthquake expert Greg Beroza for a deeper look at the evolving and expanding science of seismology. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Like clockwork, every time a large natural disaster hits and wipes out billions in built infrastructure, public officials, developers and private citizens cry, “never again.” And every time, equally like clockwork, very little gets done, says Stanford civil engineer Anne Kiremidjian, one of the world’s foremost authorities on constructing buildings that can withstand major natural disasters. She says there are technologies available that could move us toward stronger, safer buildings, but a lack of political and economic will is holding us back. What’s needed, Kiremidjian says, is the culture of resilience that has helped certain major metropolitan areas bounce back from disaster stronger than ever. That spirit is lacking in other cities and the result is months or even years of recovery. Join host Russ Altman and civil engineer Anne Kiremidjian for a look inside cities that are built to last. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

While Alzheimer’s disease has cut short too many lives and devastated more families than can be counted, its root causes and effective treatments have eluded researchers for decades. But, says Stanford bioengineer Annelise Barron, new science indicates that many Alzheimer’s cases are coincident with viral or bacterial infections in the brain, pointing to possible new approaches to treatment or prevention. Barron says that one human protein in particular, LL-37 — which she refers to as a “Ninja protein” that protects against infections — can bind with and detoxify A-beta, the protein that forms the harmful plaques in the brain that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s. Inducing LL-37 could be a way to prevent Alzheimer's. Join host Russ Altman and Alzheimer’s sleuth Annelise Barron for a hopeful look at the latest science of Alzheimer’s disease. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

While climate change is likely to bring rising sea levels, more frequent and stronger storms, as well as vanishing glaciers and coral reefs, experts say there are other lurking impacts that could have a more lasting effect on human behavior and health. Marshall Burke is a professor of Earth System Science and a fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies who says that recent research shows rising global temperatures will lead to more wars, higher crime rates and greater infant mortality. On a positive note, he points out that such predictions are starting to seep into cost-benefit calculations and that present-day mitigation could be felt sooner and more deeply than presently thought. Burke says that, in the new math of climate change, the benefits of investment vastly exceed the costs, but we must act soon. Join host Russ Altman and climate change expert Marshall Burke for a broader look inside the unanticipated effects of climate change and what we can do today to prevent them from becoming reality. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Riana Pfefferkorn is a digital security expert and Cryptography Fellow at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. She says that we are living in the “Golden Age of Surveillance,” in which the growing ubiquity of data-rich smart devices has produced a fundamental tension between the rights of users to protect their personal data and the needs of law enforcement to investigate or prevent serious crimes. She says draft legislation in Australia could have major privacy and security implications across the globe, including in the United States. If passed, the bill would require tech companies that do business in Australia to design their devices (such as smartphones) and communications services (such as encrypted messaging apps) to include digital backdoors allowing law enforcement to access data. The bill is raising concerns among privacy and computer security experts who argue that, in the wrong hands, such backdoors could lead to troubling breeches of personal privacy and data security. Join host Russ Altman and guest privacy expert Riana Pfefferkorn for a glimpse into the future of digital privacy. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

While well-known mapping apps have transformed the daily commute through better information, Stanford electrical engineer Balaji Prabhakar is exploring ways to digitally incentivize people to improve their driving habits. He calls it “nudging,” and says that small shifts in commute times — just 20 minutes earlier or later — can make a considerable impact on the day’s congestion in highly trafficked urban areas, like San Francisco. A few years ago, Prabhakar made headlines with a Stanford-only study that used small monetary incentives backed by larger lottery-like rewards to reduce peak-hour commuting on campus. He later undertook a similar but much larger effort in Singapore to promote off-peak train travel. In four years, participation in Singapore grew from 20,000 to 400,000 users. Join host Russ Altman and guest Balaji Prabhakar for a look at the very latest ways science is improving the daily grind for millions of commuters across the world. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Professor David Magnus, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, says that artificial intelligence and machine learning are reshaping the landscape of medical care, but the underlying algorithms and the overarching challenges of how to employ the data are begetting new and vexing ethical questions. Magnus explains that concerns begin with who designs, builds and pays for the algorithms and whether the ultimate goal of AI is better outcomes for patients, or better bottom lines for providers. The ethical dilemmas only grow from there as experts consider what data is incorporated, how it is gathered and what short cuts medical decision makers might take when interpreting the lessons AI reveals. The good news, Magnus says, is that medical AI offers many profound positive benefits, but to realize them successfully the profession must grapple now with the ethical dilemmas in order to avoid pitfalls. Join host Russ Altman and guest bioethicist David Magnus for a sobering look at the future of artificial intelligence in medicine. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Am I saving enough for retirement? Will I outlive my money? Can I count on Social Security? These are but a few of the nagging questions most every American grapples with when contemplating retirement. Gopi Shah Goda of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) says that the migration from once ubiquitous and relatively secure pension programs to today’s self-directed retirement plans are producing anxiety and indecision in retirement planning precisely at the worst time, and it could spell a coming crisis. Throw in a teetering Social Security system and it’s no wonder so many Americans do not know when — or if — they will ever truly retire. Join host Russ Altman and economic policy expert Gopi Shah Goda for a look at the true state of U.S. retirement planning. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

While cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum gather the lion’s share of headlines, few know that these “killer apps” are just the first generation of products based on a relatively new ledger-like technology called blockchain. Founder of the Center for Blockchain Research at Stanford, Dan Boneh says that blockchain is generating a swell of excitement among coders and computer scientists not witnessed since the earliest days of the internet. While the true killer apps are still to come, Boneh says it is never too early to contemplate what blockchain is, where things might be headed and what the consequences might be on a personal, financial and societal level. From cryptokitties to mining bitcoin, host Russ Altman and guest cybersecurity expert Dan Boneh explore the state of blockchain as we know it. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Over the last three-quarters of a century, global corporations have lost sight of their broader role in society and now are focused almost exclusively on serving their shareholders. That reality has had dire consequences for the workers of the world who are, quite literally, dying for a job, says guest Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Pfeffer says the workplace is the fifth leading cause of death and that as many as 1 million people worldwide die each year from overwork. The biggest culprits are long hours and micromanagement that leave workers both exhausted and unsatisfied. Pfeffer insists that breaking the deadly cycle rests in encouraging companies to be as good at stewarding human capital as they are at financial capital. It all begins by getting a better handle on the problem through more research. Because, Pfeffer says, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sarah Billington began her career in civil engineering studying concrete, a remarkable material that has literally shaped the world as we know it. Concrete is one of the most-consumed materials on Earth — second only to water, but this one material alone is also responsible for 6 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. That cold realization and a dispiriting morning meeting spent in a bunkerlike concrete-walled room led Billington to alter her research focus. She now studies how we can construct buildings designed to enhance human health and well-being. As a part of their research for the Stanford Catalyst for Collaborative Solutions, Billington and James Landay are co-leading efforts to better understand how buildings could be central contributors to our sense of fulfillment in life. From artistic, behavior-nudging digital displays to spaces that inspire a sense of belonging and creativity, tune in as host Russ Altman and Sarah Billington discuss a new and more holistic approach to building design. You can listen to the Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, SoundCloud and Stanford Engineering Magazine. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Populism can be a powerful force in a democratic society. But according to Anna Grzymala-Busse, a Stanford professor of political science and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, once in power populists often implement authoritarian policies that threaten the very foundations of democracy itself. Grzymala-Busse says that the antidote to authoritarianism is to defend democratic norms, to speak out and to vote. She discusses the issue in this episode of The Future of Everything radio show with host Russ Altman. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Beginning in the 1980s, medical doctors started treating pain with increasing amounts of opioid medications. That shift was driven in part by an effort by the profession to be more humane to those in serious pain, but also by misinformation and aggressive marketing by the pharmaceutical industry, which wrongly convinced doctors that their drugs were both safe and not addictive. According to Anna Lembke, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, those changes wrought the current opioid crisis in which millions are addicted to heroin-like medications and many more are dead from overdoses caused by unregulated, immensely powerful street drugs. Lembke tells Altman their profession is slowly reckoning with a long-simmering problem of their own making by questioning the indiscriminate prescription of opioids and by championing new approaches to dealing with addiction, including more behavioral dependencies like those to sex and gambling. A prescription for addiction is on the table in the latest episode of The Future of Everything radio show with host Russ Altman. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From Bitcoin theft to the embarrassing revelations in the Sony Pictures hacking to the recent assault on the U.S. election, the threats of international cyberattack are growing in both number and consequence. As our technology steadily becomes more cloud based, these threats will only grow and could be soon be directed at fundamental institutions we all trust and rely upon, including the electrical grid and our financial systems. Our guest in this episode of The Future of Everything radio show is Andrew Grotto, the William J. Perry International Security Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) and a reserach fellow at the Hoover Institution, both at Stanford. Grotto was senior director for cybersecurity policy in both the Obama and Trump administrations. He says that successfully counteracting these looming threats is among the most serious and challenging issues of the present day. Grotto cautions that it is not just a technical challenge anymore, but a matter of national security that will require American resilience, leadership and a return to the basic norms of civil discourse. Join Russ Altman and Andrew Grotto for a clear-eyed look at the challenges of cybersecurity in the era of cloud computing. Listen here on the latest episode of The Future of Everything radio show. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Stanford’s Martha Crenshaw, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and an expert on terrorism, is asked if she thinks terrorism is evolving, growing more widespread, violent and shocking by the year, she has one response: It’s complicated. She says that many of those trends are true, but they are driven both by the intense motivation of the terrorists and by their ability to broadcast images and messages across the world in a flash. This ability to communicate, she says, is both a tool to shock opponents and to recruit adherents. When combined, the result is a more-violent violence. The obvious question soon follows: How can we fight terrorism? Crenshaw says that it is unlikely that terrorism will ever end, but one path to reducing its influence lies in resolving many of the civil struggles that make it a compelling option for so many organizations throughout the world. Join host Russ Altman and terrorism expert Martha Crenshaw for a wide-ranging look at terrorism today, on The Future of Everything radio show from Stanford School of Engineering. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can an expectant mother’s exposure to air pollutants or even extreme temperatures impact her unborn child’s earning potential 30 years later? Can paid family leave improve workforce attachment for new mothers? According to Maya Rossin-Slater, economist and an assistant professor of health research and policy at Stanford School of Medicine, the answer to these and other questions is “yes.” She says that research on these topics can provide policy makers with more comprehensive information on the costs and benefits in their decision-making, which is especially important for policies that have disproportionate effects on the less affluent. Rossin-Slater says, for instance, that just 14% of Americans have access to paid family leave from their employers and the numbers grow starker the further down the economic ladder a new parent happens to be. The consequences are hurting not just future generations of Americans, but also American businesses, she says. On this episode of The Future of Everything, host Russ Altman and Rossin-Slater discuss the many ways public policy decisions can affect families and America’s poor. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It may not be widely known, but before he launched Apple, Steve Jobs lived for a year on a commune. The fact that he became one of the wealthiest capitalists in America, however, should not surprise anyone who knows anything about the antecedents of Silicon Valley, says Stanford’s Fred Turner, professor of communication and history. The truth is that there is a strong countercultural thread running through the fabric of today’s digital world. From “phreaking” scams of the long-distance telephone system to the Whole Earth Catalog, those who sought to disrupt society often found comfort in computers. For proof, one need only consider the Utopian ideals that led to the ascendancy of the internet itself — universal, free and limitless. Seen in that light, Facebook is about as communal as it comes. Nonetheless, while all that freedom has made many people very rich, very fast, it has not come without a cost to our social consciousness and our social fabric, says Turner. In this episode of The Future of Everything radio show, Russ Altman and Fred Turner look at the somewhat surprising communal roots of today’s social, digital world. Tune in, if you dig. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From Oculus Rift to Samsung VR, the era of virtual reality is right around the corner, if not already upon us. But what are the psychological impacts of VR and what are the best uses of this much-hyped technology — the “killer apps,” as they say? Jeremy Bailenson is a professor of communication at Stanford and author of the new book, Experience on Demand. He has been studying virtual reality and its effects on humans since 1999. Back then, his dream was to create virtual office spaces that might absolve people of the need to commute every day. These days, he studies how to make virtual reality even realer and which uses are closest to becoming the indispensable apps that could turn VR from a curiosity to a must-have in every home and office. From exploring the subtleties of virtual donuts to the most effective ways to teach, Bailenson says the best uses of VR may not be those that leap immediately to mind. Join The Future of Everything host Russ Altman and Bailenson for a grand tour of the very latest in virtual reality. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As the global population approaches 10 billion and the effects of climate change continue to alter familiar agricultural patterns, the world is already witnessing a transformation in how and where it gets its food. Even diets are changing as people move away from traditional animal proteins, like beef and pork, to fish and vegetable sources. Stanford’s Roz Naylor, the director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment, says those shifts could lead to a world that looks a lot different than today. For instance, Naylor says that aquaculture, better known as fish farming, is now the fastest growing sector of the global food industry. And, thanks to changes in the industry, rapidly growing Africa stands to become a hotspot for agricultural entrepreneurs. On this episode of “The Future of Everything” radio show, Naylor discusses these and the many other ways in which the business of feeding the world is changing right before our eyes. Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.