The Future of Everything

Deborah Kado is a geriatrician who believes her field is misunderstood. Her interest in the science of aging began with a childhood encounter in a nursing home but recently resulted in intriguing work in which Kado linked microbes in the gut to vitamin D metabolism and poor sleep. Kado refuses to blame aging alone for health problems, advocating for better care regardless of age. It’s never too la...

It's teacher appreciation week and along with schools across the country, we here at The Future of Everything want to send out a heartfelt thank you to the teachers who make a difference every day in the lives of our children and in society as a whole. In light of this, we’re re-running an education related episode, and more specifically one on the future of educational technology with the Dean of...

Lisa Patel is a pediatrician and an expert in environmental health who says that pollution is taking an increasing toll on children’s health. Pollution from wildfires, fossil fuels, and plastics can cause asthma, pneumonia, and risks dementia in the long-term. But, she says, all hope is not lost. Solutions range from DIY air filters to choosing induction stoves over gas, cutting down on meat consu...

Michael Wara is a lawyer and an expert in wildfire policy who says that solutions are out there, but face financial, political, and cultural resistance. What’s needed, he says, are “whole-of-society” approaches that raise wildfire risk to the community level. In this regard, the devastation in Los Angeles in 2025 could provide the spark needed for smarter communication, better policies, and renewe...

Physician and psychologist Heidi Feldman is a pioneer in the field of developmental behavioral pediatrics who says that the world’s understanding of childhood disability is changing and so too are the ways we approach it. Where once institutionalization was common, today we find integrative, family-centered approaches, charting a more humane, hopeful path forward. For example, for children born pr...

The world of women’s sports is experiencing unprecedented growth, attention, recognition, and investment. Elite athletes including Simone Biles, Caitlin Clark, Serena Williams, and many others are having a significant impact on culture, and more women than ever are participating in both professional and recreational sports. Earlier this year, Russ sat down with Dr. Emily Kraus to talk about the fu...

Nora Freeman Engstrom is a professor of law who says that in three-quarters of cases one or more of the parties lacks legal representation. Worse yet, often the litigants are involved in high-consequence civil cases where there is no right to a lawyer and costs are prohibitive. Some states are looking at alternatives including non-lawyer representation, curated legal help for low-income citizens,...

Physician Tina Stankovic is an ear, nose, and throat specialist and a lover of music whose seemingly disparate pursuits — medicine and music — have led her to a groundbreaking career in hearing research. She recently worked with music legend Paul Simon during his well-publicized battle with hearing loss and he has become a vocal advocate for hearing research. New understandings and new approaches...

Michael Rau is a professor, theater director, and tech innovator in one. He says that today’s technologies – AI, gaming, interactive storytelling, and even email – are reshaping what performers can do on stage and how audiences experience those performances. The best of the stage has always been about reflecting life, and technology is part of how we live today. It belongs on the stage, as Rau tel...

We've been thinking a lot about culture recently, and reflecting on how–whether or not we’re aware of it–culture is a force that’s always exerting influence on us. It’s typically only when we get outside of our daily routine, our city or even our country, and are confronted with new ways of doing things that we can clearly see the values, norms, and practices that make up the culture we live in. T...

We are on the cusp of a materials revolution – in electronics, health care, and avionics – says guest engineer-scientist Eric Pop . For instance, silicon and copper have served electronics admirably for decades, he says, but at the nanoscale, better materials will be needed. Atomically thin two-dimensional semiconductors (like molybdenum disulfide) and topological semimetals (like niobium phosphid...

Physician Ash Alizadeh has seen the future of disease diagnosis and monitoring. It is coursing through every patient’s veins. Traditionally, biopsies have required invasively gathering tissue – from a lung, a liver, or a fetus. Now it’s possible to look for disease without surgery. The DNA is sitting there in the bloodstream, Alizadeh tells host Russ Altman , as they preview the age of liquid biop...

February is American Heart Month, and in light of that, we’re bringing back an episode about a group here at Stanford Engineering that’s developing 3D printing methods for human tissues and organs, a process known as bioprinting. Motivated in part by the critical need for heart transplants, Mark Skylar-Scott and his team are specifically working to bioprint tissues of the human heart. It may sound...

Welcome to Stanford Engineering's The Future of Everything, the podcast that delves into groundbreaking research and innovations that are shaping the world and inventing the future. The University has a long history of doing work to positively impact the world and it's a joy to share about the people who are doing this work, what motivates them, and how their work is creating a better future for e...

Guest Kristy Red-Horse is a biologist who specializes in coronary artery development and disease. She says the latest advances in treatment of blockages could do away with invasive bypass surgeries in favor of growing new arteries using molecules like CXCL12, known to promote artery regrowth in mice. Red-Horse explains how leaps forward in medical imaging, expanding atlases of gene expressions, an...

Materials scientist and physicist Guosong Hong is an expert in getting materials to do remarkable things. Recently, he and collaborators used a common food dye found in snack chips to turn living tissue transparent, allowing light to penetrate through skin and muscle. Hong is now working to realize a new age of medical imaging that lets doctors see deep into the body – without surgery. It’s a mira...

With the tremendous amount of information available to us today, the ability to discern what’s reliable from what’s not is crucial to combating the spread of misinformation. In 2023, we sat down with Jonathan Osborne , an expert in science education to talk about the tools our students (and really all of us!) need to critically evaluate science news and information. We hope you’ll tune into this e...

Oceanographer Kristen Davis , an authority on ocean physics and climate sustainability, discusses the growing excitement around seaweed and kelp as tools to combat climate change. Like trees on land, these underwater plants use photosynthesis to absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into organic matter. When they die, some of that carbon may sink to the ocean depths. However, the science is still e...

Nephrologist Manjula Tamura discusses the downsides of kidney dialysis, especially for old or frail patients. Her field has set its sights on offering alternatives, including supportive medical management without dialysis, dialysis in increments, wearable artificial kidneys, and transplanted kidneys from genetically modified pigs – in addition to advances in preventive care that can help humans av...

Guest Renee Zhao works at the cutting-edge of robotic surgery – literally. Emboldened by advances in 3D-printing and miniaturization, she builds “millibots,” magnet-controlled, millimeter-scale soft robots that navigate the bloodstream to remove blood clots and treat brain aneurysms. While the millibot’s promise is clear, much work remains before the devices are commonplace. Revolutionizing health...

Happy New Year! For many of us, a new year brings a renewed sense of motivation when it comes to health. Earlier this year, Russ sat down to speak with Jonathan Long , a Stanford biochemist who studies the chemicals produced during exercise. The conversation was one of our most popular during 2024 and today we’re re-sharing it. As many of us look to create healthy habits in 2025, we hope you’ll tu...

Happy Holidays! However you’re celebrating, we hope you’re able to find time to connect with friends, family, and loved ones. To accompany you through the season, we’re re-running one of our most popular episodes from 2024, the future of skin longevity with Professor Zakia Rahman . As an expert in dermatology, Professor Rahman explains that our skin is our most photographed organ, and taking care...

Leanne Williams is an expert in depression. The first thing that she wants the world to know is that depression is not some sort of character flaw, but a real illness with symptoms that can impair one’s ability to function day to day. The past decade has seen remarkable advances, she says, as functional MRI has opened new avenues of understanding depression’s mechanisms and its treatments. These a...

Guest Michael Greicius is an authority on Alzheimer’s disease. He makes the case that while effective treatments have remained elusive, there are high hopes for new approaches that target tau proteins in the brain associated with the disease. In the meantime, to reduce Alzheimer’s risk stay active, eat well, and manage circulatory risks, but skip genetic testing for now until better treatments eme...

Two-time guest Nate Persily is a professor of law and policy who studies the intersection of artificial intelligence and democracy. AI is creeping into democracy, he says, and 2024 saw its share of deepfakes and synthetic media, but with surprisingly little impact. His bigger concern is the opposite – politicians claiming the truth to be fake. It breeds distrust and, for democracy, that’s more per...