For the Issues podcast, we talk with fascinating people to get a behind-the-scenes look at how their research and ideas are transforming our world. Listen and subscribe to The Ongoing Transformation wherever you get your podcasts—or simply click on the links below.
Episode 46
Walter Valdivia Researches for the White House
In the latest episode of
Science Policy IRL, Walter Valdivia takes us inside the world of think tanks. Walter describes how a chance encounter during his PhD at ASU led him into science policy, what think tanks do in the policy world, and the paradoxes of policy creation.
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Episode 44
Alta Charo Considers Ethics for Stem Cells and CRISPR
In the latest episode of
Science Policy IRL, bioethicist Alta Charo talks about how science policy can and does impact people’s lives—and describes what it’s like to be one of the only non-scientists at the science policy table, how helping a close friend who died of ALS continues to inspire her work, and why science policy can help us become techno-optimists.
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Episode 45
Building Community in the Bayou
Monique Verdin joins host JD Talasek to discuss using art and science to understand a Gulf that is being reshaped by climate, industry, and more. A citizen of the United Houma Nation, Verdin’s art practice and community activism give voice to indigenous and marginalized communities in the South while building bridges with science communities.
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Episode 43
Zach Pirtle Explores Ethics for Mars Landings
Zach Pirtle shares how he almost accidentally found his way from studying philosophy and engineering at Arizona State University to a perfect career working on space ethics at NASA’s Office of Technology Policy and Strategy—and how agencies engage hands-on in science policy as they figure out how to implement legislation.
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Episode 42
Turning a Policy Idea into a Pilot Project
By day, Erica Fuchs is a professor of engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. However, for the past year she’s also been running a pilot project—the National Network for Critical Technology Assessment—to give the federal government the ability to anticipate problems in supply chains and respond to them. And it all started with an essay she wrote for
Issues in 2021.
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Episode 41
Apurva Dave Builds Connections Between National Security and Climate
Early in his career, Apurva Dave was an oceanographer; now he works at the cutting edge of climate policy at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In the second installment of our new series,
Science Policy IRL, Apurva talks about his work convening cross-disciplinary dialogues on “emerging, abrupt, and understudied” climate and security risks.
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Episode 40
A Venture Capitalist for Better Science
Stuart Buck has referred to himself as a venture capitalist for making science more efficient, reliable, and accountable. He focuses on making sure that reforms are actually improvements, not performative busywork. In our latest podcast episode, he discusses how metascience—the study of science—has fueled reform, and how to make sure reforms produce the desired effects.
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Episode 38
Sustaining Science for the Future of Ukraine
Since the early days of the war in Ukraine, Vaughan Turekian has been leading efforts to support Ukrainian scientists and their research, enlisting the help of international science academies and philanthropic partners. He joins host Molly Galvin to discuss efforts to support Ukrainian scientists and why such efforts are important for the future of Ukraine.
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Episode 37
The Complicated Legacy of the Green Revolution
An American agronomist named Norman Borlaug developed and popularized the central innovation of the Green Revolution: the concept of “wide adaptation,” or the idea that plants could be bred to produce a high yield in a variety of environments. Interdisciplinary scientist and historian Marci Baranski talks about how a more nuanced understanding of Borlaug’s work and the Green Revolution can improve agricultural and economic development policies today.
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Episode 36
Open Science: Moving From Possible to Expected to Required
University of Virginia psychology professor Brian Nosek cofounded an unusual nonprofit, the Center for Open Science. It’s been a cheerleader, enabler, and nagger to convince scientists that making their methods, data, and papers available to others makes for better science. Nosek refers to the “pyramid of culture change” as his strategy to push for reforms: first make a better practice possible, then easy, expected, rewarding, and finally, required.
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Episode 35
Blue Dreams: Connecting People With Ocean Research
Despite its importance, the ocean is largely unexplored and often misunderstood. Artist Rebecca Rutstein is interested in how art can help people connect with ocean research. In this episode, Rustein and oceanographer Mandy Joye talk with host Alana Quinn about the rich potential of partnerships between artists and scientists to create visceral connections to the deep sea.
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Episode 34
Secretary Ernest Moniz on the Diplomatic Role of “Cumulative” Science
Ernest Moniz, secretary of energy during the Obama administration, has been a practitioner of science diplomacy at the highest levels. In this episode, Moniz talks about the role of science in international negotiations and emphasizes the importance of collaboration to scientific discovery. Science, he says, is cumulative, extending far beyond the experience of a single person. If collaborations are prevented, we will never know what knowledge we failed to create.
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Episode 33
Combating the “Multi-Dimensional Beast” of Chronic Pain
Chronic pain affects more Americans than diabetes, depression, and hypertension. Yet the disease is poorly understood, often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and effective treatments are in short supply. A recent study provides new insights into how the disease affects the nervous system. In this episode, the lead author of that study, Prasad Shirvalkar talks about his research and how it could transform physicians’ understanding and treatment of what he calls a “multi-dimensional beast.”
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Episode 32
Artificial Intelligence and the Moral Imagination
Artificial intelligence’s remarkable advances have become a topic of feverish discussion, part of a long tradition of cautionary tales about human creations escaping their bounds to wreak havoc. But several recent novels pose a more subtle, and in some ways more interesting, question: What does our interaction with artificial intelligence reveal about us and our society? In this episode, historian Deborah Poskanzer speaks with Jason Lloyd about three books that she recently reviewed for
Issues.
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Episode 31
Race, Genetics, and a “Most Dangerous Myth”
The concept of distinct races came from European naturalists in the 1700s. It’s now recognized as a social construct, rather than a biological classification. But genetics researchers still sometimes use race or ethnicity to stand in for ancestry. Ann Morning, a professor of sociology at New York University, recently spoke with Monya Baker about why race is a poor—but persistent—shorthand in genetics studies, and what to do about it.
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Episode 30
The Microscope and the Metaphor
What does intuitive, emotional poetry have in common with rational, empirical science? On this episode, host J. D. Talasek talks to poet Jane Hirshfield and neuroscientist Virginia Sturm to understand how they came to work together, and the connections they’ve found between poetry, neural science, and society. They discuss what Hirschfield calls the “mutual delight” they’ve found between poets and scientists as they consider how the microscope and the metaphor can be used to explore the world.
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Episode 29
To Solve the AI Problem, Rely on Policy, Not Technology
Artificial intelligence is everywhere, growing increasingly accessible and pervasive. Conversations about AI often focus on technical accomplishments rather than societal impacts, but leading scholar Kate Crawford has long drawn attention to the potential harms AI poses for society: exploitation, discrimination, and more. Monya Baker recently spoke with Crawford about how to ensure AI designers incorporate societal protections into product development and deployment.
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Episode 28
Finding Collective Advantage in Shared Knowledge
The CHIPS and Science Act aims to secure American competitiveness and innovation by investing $280 billion in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, scientific innovation, and regional development. But if similar government investments in the past are any guide, this will affect American life in unexpected and profound ways. Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, discusses the CHIPS and Science Act in the context of previous American investments in science and technology.
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Episode 27
Confronting Extreme Heat With the World’s First Chief Heat Officer
What can be done to protect vulnerable communities from extreme heat? The world’s first chief heat officer, Jane Gilbert, who leads Miami-Dade County’s efforts to deal with extreme heat, is working on the answers. She talks about the need for win-win solutions (more air conditioning alone can’t solve the problem), the difficulties of planting trees on busy streets, and engaging with citizens on solutions for keeping communities safe in a warmer future.
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Episode 26
You’ve Been Misinformed About Sharks
Misinformation has long been an issue for scientists who study sharks. The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week has anchored the idea of predatory, dangerous sharks in the public consciousness for 35 years, often wrapping its entertainments in the legitimizing cloak of science. Marine biologist David Shiffman talks about how this information harms shark conservation efforts.
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Episode 25
What’s Driving the Electric Car Revival?
Major American automakers infamously scrapped their electric vehicle programs in the early 2000s. This left an opening for new players, informed by and emerging from the information technology revolution. Matthew Eisler explains how the consumer electronics industry—with help from public policy—accomplished an end run around the automaking establishment to reinvent the electric vehicle.
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Episode 24
Collaborations on Ice
Over the course of a four-year project, a group of artists and scientists integrated field data, remote satellite imagery, scientific analysis, and art to create visual representations of disappearing Arctic ice. Being deeply embedded in each other’s processes helped the group foster new ideas and unexpected outcomes. Cy Keener and Ignatius Rigor discuss how to build successful collaborations across different disciplines and how creative practices can contribute to scientific research and communication.
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Episode 23
Shirley Malcom – Where Science and Society Meet
Shirley M. Malcom is a trailblazer in the area of broadening participation in science. On this episode, she talks about the importance of the behavioral sciences, social sciences, and education in evidence-based public policy. She brings her considerable expertise in public science literacy, issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and STEM education to bear on the challenges facing American society.
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