The Future of Everything

We're here to wish you a very happy New Year! We hope you’re ringing in the new year in good health and looking forward to what’s ahead in 2026. As people are setting goals and making resolutions, we’...

Hi everyone, it’s your host, Russ. As we celebrate another holiday season and round out the year, I want to take a moment to say thank you for listening. This show started out over 8 years ago as an e...

We hope you’re enjoying the holiday season with family, friends, and loved ones. We’ll be releasing new episodes again in the new year – in the meantime, today, we’re re-running a fascinating episode ...

Microbes are awesome, says biologist Paula Welander. They have shaped Earth’s chemistry and its environment over billions of years, including oxygenating the planet to make it habitable for larger lif...

Molecular biologist Judith Frydman studies the nuances of protein folding and how defects in the process lead to neurodegenerative diseases. Her team studies protein folding in human cells and in mode...

Maria Barna is an authority on ribosomes – “life’s most ancient and spectacular molecular machines.” Ribosomes make proteins in the body. There can be a thousand different types of ribosomes in a sing...

In October, chemical engineer Will Tarpeh was awarded a 2025 MacArthur “Genius Grant” in recognition of his pioneering work to turn wastewater into a source of valuable materials. Will envisions a fut...

Gabriel Weintraub studies how digital markets evolve. In that regard, he says platforms like Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb have already disrupted multiple verticals through their use of data and digital te...

Biochemist Lingyin Li survived breast cancer at just 30 and now works to harness the human immune system to fight cancers that have long evaded treatment. T cells, she says, are powerful cancer killer...

On our 300th episode, Stanford Hoover Institution Director and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talks about her return to Stanford after years in government and the impact she sees rapi...