The Ongoing Transformation

There was a time when everything on the internet seemed like it would be there forever, whether a Facebook status or a government website. But today the prospect of maintaining massive amounts of digital history is in doubt. This poses a particular issue for the open science movement, which has advocated for wide access to scientific data and papers over the last 25 years. The movement’s successes...

On Science Policy IRL , we talk to people in science policy about what they do and how they got there. In this installment, host Josh Trapani talks to Mary Woolley about leading Research! America for 35 years. During her tenure, Research! America grew into a major research advocacy organization and helped advocate for many changes, including doubling the budget of the National Institutes of Health...

Spam represents nearly half of all global email traffic, from obnoxious ads to dire warnings of impending account closures to absurd invitations to join the Illuminati (just ask our podcast producer). It is a constant, annoying part of online life, but does it have to be that way?. Understanding the efforts to address spam in the early 2000s offers lessons for how we might regulate technologies su...

On Science Policy IRL , we talk to people in science policy about what they do and how they got there. In this installment, we’re exploring how science policy works from both inside and outside the government.  Host Monya Baker is joined by Kumar Garg , president of Renaissance Philanthropy, an organization that helps philanthropists support science, technology and innovation. Prior to joining Ren...

How do people find good jobs? How do employers find good talent? How should the American economy prepare for the future of work in the age of artificial intelligence?  On this episode, Issues editor Molly Galvin talks to Burning Glass Institute president Matt Sigelman about these questions. Sigelman spent two decades developing the field of real-time labor market data as CEO and then chairman of a...

Assistive reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization have helped many people have children. Behind many of these births are egg donors, whose experiences remain largely invisible in public narratives and scholarship. As reproductive technologies change—along with the ethical and policy challenges they raise—the role of egg donors will too.  On this episode, host Jason Lloyd is joined...

On Science Policy IRL , we talk to people in science policy about what they do and how they got there. Most of the people we’ve interviewed work in the legislative branch of the federal government or in agencies in the executive branch. In this installment, we’re going to an unexpected place for science policy: the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Host Lisa Margonelli is joined by Edward You , wh...

Innovation lately feels synonymous with the digital entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley or the high-tech corridor of Route 128 outside Boston. But when Thomas Edison opened his first research lab in the 1870s, it was in Newark, New Jersey. A few years later, in nearby Menlo Park, he invented the light bulb. Now, Newark is working to build a new, inclusive tech innovation ecosystem that goes beyond thi...

What do the design of high-visibility public safety vests, the distance between two railroad tracks, and the protocols that allow for file transfers between devices have in common? Each is determined by a technical standard set through a process coordinated by a private, non-profit organization called the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Technical standards are behind most of the prod...

Cannabis policy in the United States has been, in many ways, a giant experiment. The drug was recently reclassified by the Trump administration from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug, but remains federally illegal. On the state level, cannabis’s availability to patients and consumers has been determined by voters, not by scientists and regulators. Each state has a different approach to cannabis...

For as long as people have speculated about the development of artificial intelligence, they have debated its potential impacts on the labor market. Today, several years into widespread use of large language models, those questions are more urgent, but the answers are less clear. Is AI already taking jobs away? Could human beings flourish in a world in which they no longer have to perform economic...

On Science Policy IRL , we talk to people in science policy about what they do and how they got there. In this installment, host Lisa Margonelli talks to Bhavya Lal about the trajectory of her career. Lal began as a nuclear engineer, then completed a midcareer PhD and began to work in science policy. A few years in, she decided to specialize in space policy—which is when things really started to g...

Artificial intelligence assistants such as Google’s Gemini have exploded in popularity, constantly offering to help summarize a document, craft an email response, or answer a question. AI chatbots take this even further. These chatbots—sometimes called AI companions—generate conversations with users, and because they “remember” interactions and modulate their responses, they can appear, at times,...

Our miniseries Not Now, But Soon challenges the stories we often tell about disasters and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better futures and policies. On our final episode of this season, host Malka Older examines the role art and fiction play in understanding war. She talks with art and culture historian Brigitte van der Sande , who has spent 25 years studying how war is rep...

Our miniseries Not Now, But Soon challenges the stories we often tell about disasters and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better futures and policies. On this episode, host Malka Older is joined by Nasir Andisha , ambassador and permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations, to reimagine Afghanistan and the stories we tell about its past, present, and future....

Our miniseries Not Now, But Soon challenges the stories we often tell about disasters and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better futures and policies. On this episode, host Malka Older examines the stories behind statistics with Julisa Tambunan , deputy executive director of Equal Measures 2030, a global feminist coalition. Tambunan uses data to advocate for policies that cen...

Our miniseries Not Now, But Soon challenges the stories we often tell about disasters and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better futures and policies.  On this episode, host Malka Older explores food systems with investigative journalist Thin Lei Win . Win shares her experience growing up in Myanmar, and how that has shaped how she sees the intersection between food productio...

Our new miniseries, Not Now, But Soon , challenges the stories we often tell about disasters, and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better futures and policies. On our first episode, host Malka Older talks to Steven Gonzalez , an anthropologist of technology who researches the human labor behind data centers.  Gonzalez is also a speculative fiction writer under the byline E. G....

Why do disasters happen? How do we rebuild after a disaster? What lessons can we learn from them? Our new miniseries, Not Now, But Soon , challenges the stories we often tell about disasters, and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better futures and policies.  In this trailer episode, Lisa Margonelli introduces miniseries host Malka Older , an author, humanitarian aid worker, an...

People know that their pets are unique individuals. Each dog has his or her own quirks, likes, and dislikes. But what about cormorants? Research reveals that wild animals are just as uniquely individual as our pets. Rats show empathy. Crows can hold grudges. Even termites have different personalities. What would it mean if society took animal intelligence and self-awareness seriously?  Lisa Margon...

Think tanks are a vital part of the policy ecosystem, but what do they do? In this installment of Science Policy IRL , host Jason Lloyd talks to Neil Chilson , head of AI policy at the Abundance Institute. He has been involved in science and technology policy for his whole career, previously practicing telecommunications law and serving as the Federal Trade Commission’s chief technologist. In this...

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was once thought of as a condition that affects only children. The belief was that children would grow out of it, but research has shown that the condition often persists throughout life. In fact, ADHD is the second most prevalent psychiatric disorder in adults, but many misconceptions still exist about it.  On this episode, host Sara Frueh is joined...

Kelvin Droegemeier , a longtime leader in science policy, joins host Megan Nicholson for this installment of Science Policy IRL . Droegemeier began his career as a research meteorologist and went on to serve in many different leadership roles in state and federal government. He directed the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2019–2021, served on the National Science Board fro...

Fiction can be an important tool to explore complex science and technology questions: Would our legal system be more equitable if an AI delivered verdicts rather than judges and juries? What will happen to future climate refugees ? Is human consciousness just another algorithm ? That’s why Issues has partnered with ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination to publish Future Tense Fiction, a spe...

On Science Policy IRL , we talk to people in science policy about what they do and how they got there. We’ve shared stories of how people have found their way into science policy careers at places like the White House, Congress, and federal agencies. In this episode, we’re exploring a different way into science policy: getting involved with your local government.  Taylor Spicer , the executive dir...