Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

The Ig Nobel prizes are awarded every year in a ceremony that is as charming as it is ridiculous, awarding research that itself may seem ridiculous at first sight but often turns out to be unexpectedly useful. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Babies find things funny long before they understand language – surprising even the author of the most detailed study to date of when and how babies and toddlers develop a sense of humor. And the better they are at getting jokes, the better they are at connecting with others. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data...

Almost 60 years ago she defied television conventions with her depiction of a young woman succeeding on her own in the big city. And for the last 30 years, along with her own busy career, she's helped keep alive and thriving her father’s dream of a research hospital for children. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal...

In the almost six years since the beginning of the pandemic he’s developed an on-line personality that’s an exuberant mix of medical expert and next-door neighbor, expressed in engaging videos on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alan and executive producer Graham Chedd look ahead to the new season, which includes episodes on how babies who giggle become socially smarter; prizes for science that makes you both laugh and think; why truth is so elusive; and how Marlo Thomas kick started Alan’s movie career as well as helping her father found the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company....

How technological innovation has shaped our culture, with lessons from history and even from bees. And how these lessons can help tame and curate the information overload that AI is contributing to on social media. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism talks about how social media is overtaking traditional newspapers and television as most people’s source of news; what this means for journalism; and how Columbia is preparing tomorrow’s journalists for the new reality. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advert...

MASH changed Alan’s life as well as the lives of the rest of the MASH cast. In this revisit of a free-wheeling conversation recorded in 2019 Alan, and the gang reminisce about an extraordinary eleven years of connecting and communicating. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alan revisits a conversation he had with Michael seven years ago, at a time when Fox had been grappling with Parkinson’s Disease for 27 years and Alan for three. As Alan says in this updated episode, both have been fighting Parkinson’s with attitude – plenty of attitude. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for...

A confident prediction from the man who first brought our warming planet to public attention some 35 years ago. Energy from solar and wind is now cheaper than traditional fossil fuels and is being rapidly adopted across the world. The exception is the US where the federal priority is planet-warming coal, oil and gas. But even in the US, local action, prompted in part by McKibben-backed organizatio...

In a surprising shift in how we communicate about the climate crisis, Kate Marvel explores the  feelings  evoked by her research. Her new book tackles what’s happening to our changing planet, each chapter triggering in her a different emotional response – from wonder and anger, though guilt to love: using emotion along with facts to spur action. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.ad...

Data: dry and boring, right? Not in the hands of Justin Evans, a data expert himself, who set out to show that data is not only the lifeblood of today’s world; it is also the source of moving stories of other data experts who have achieved remarkable things – like the epidemiologist whose inspired use of data in the early days of Covid helped save hundreds of thousands of lives in New York city al...

After adopting a beagle that had spent the first four years of his life as an experimental subject in a laboratory, she set out – with Hammy the beagle by her side – to explore the murky world of animal experimentation. She tells the story of her travels and her discoveries in a new book,  Lab Dog. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection a...

Not only are non-violent protests more effective than armed resistance, but a surprisingly small percentage of the population – around three and a half percent – has been enough to change governments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With long memories and the ability to figure out what other crows are thinking  – then plot to outdo them, using what Nicky Clayton calls “sleight of beak” – crows are at least as smart as chimpanzees, despite having very different brains. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It then becomes “common knowledge,” and can be both beneficial – like cementing friendships or empowering peaceful protests – or destructive, causing a run on toilet paper or splitting society into silos, each with their own common knowledge. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd look ahead to next season and some unexpected connections between our first guests. They include best-selling author Steven Pinker, and how you know that I know that you know that I know; psychologist Nicky Clayton and why crows are so smart; Erica Chenoweth and the power of peaceful protest; climate scientist Kate Marvel on why she gets emotional in her ne...

Perched on a mountain top in Chile, the new Vera Rubin Observatory’s telescope will view the universe as it’s never been seen before, seeking answers to cosmic mysteries like dark energy and dark matter, but also helping keep Earth safe from potentially dangerous asteroids. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data f...

With lessons learned from the Covid pandemic, he points to how we might better tackle the next, inevitable, global pandemic — at a time when science has been all but discarded from the leading government agencies responsible for public health. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Unlike most other land animals, we can live almost anywhere – from deserts, to mountains, rain forests, even the arctic. We are supremely adaptable, and that adaptability has led to our diversity – not only in our biology but also in our cultures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Along with revelations about snake sex, their contributions to medicine, that flickering tongue and why slithering is a secret to their success, Stephen Hall goes at least some way to convincing Alan that snakes – “the ultimate other” – deserve our respect as well as our dread. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal da...

She’s had a love-hate relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald since she was a teenager. And she’s now written a wonderful new take on  The Great Gatsby , reimagining the story with a cast of the Black elite in post-war Los Angeles. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

An old friend of Clear and Vivid is back to enlighten Alan on some of the oddities of human behavior – both good and bad – and to talk about his entertaining new podcast, Father Offspring Interviews, hosted by his daughter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From his long running role as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul , to his recent Broadway appearance in Glenngary Glen Ross, and his new incarnation as an off-beat action hero in the movies Nobody and Nobody 2 , Bob Odenkirk does it all. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With her Black scuba-diving companions she has sought to reveal the appalling cost in lives lost in sunken slave ships, while at the same time honoring those lives by telling their stories. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.