Podcast Episodes
Back to Search65. A Rockstar Chemist and Her Cancer-Attacking “Lawn Mower”
Episode 65
Stanford professor Carolyn Bertozzi’s imaginative ideas for treating disease have led to ten start-ups. She talks with Steve about the next generatio…
3 years, 10 months ago
64. How Larry Miller Went from Prison Valedictorian to Nike Executive
Episode 64
Climbing the corporate ladder to become head of Nike’s Jordan brand, he kept his teenage murder conviction a secret from employers. Larry talks about…
3 years, 10 months ago
63. The Only Covid-19 Book Worth Reading
Episode 63
Steve loved Michael Lewis’s latest, The Premonition, but has one critique: Why aren’t there even more villains? Also, why the author of best-sellers …
3 years, 10 months ago
62. How Does Historian Brad Gregory Make a Boring Topic So Mind-Blowing?
Episode 62
A leading expert on the Reformation era, Brad, a University of Notre Dame professor, tells Steve about how the “blood gets sucked out of history,” an…
3 years, 11 months ago
61. Was Austan Goolsbee’s First Visit to the Oval Office Almost His Last?
Episode 61
The former chairman of the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisors tells Steve how improv comedy was a better training ground for teachin…
3 years, 11 months ago
60. Cassandra Quave Thinks the Way Antibiotics Are Developed Might Kill Us
Episode 60
By mid-century, 10 million people a year are projected to die from untreatable infections. Can Cassandra, an ethnobotanist at Emory University convin…
3 years, 11 months ago
Why Aren’t All Drugs Legal? (Replay Ep. 28)
The Columbia neuroscientist and psychology professor Carl Hart believes that recreational drug use, even heroin, methamphetamines, and cocaine, is an…
3 years, 11 months ago
Are We Under Threat from a New Kind of Terror? (Replay Ep. 24)
Amaryllis Fox is a former C.I.A. operative and host of the Netflix show The Business of Drugs. She explains why intelligence work requires empathy, a…
4 years ago
59. Who Gives the Worst Advice?
Episode 59
Steve usually asks his guests for advice, whether they’re magicians or Nobel laureates. After nearly 60 episodes, is any of it worth following — or s…
4 years ago
58. Why Is Richard Thaler Such a ****ing Optimist?
Episode 58
The Nobel laureate and pioneering behavioral economist spars with Steve over what makes a nudge a nudge, and admits that even economists have plenty …
4 years ago