The World as You’ll Know It: The Future Of Aging

One out of five Americans suffer from chronic pain and a new approach to treatment could transform their lives. Judith Warner speaks with Drs. Yoni Ashar and Tor Wager, neuroscientists who are at the forefront of a new way to understand and treat chronic pain that looks to the brain rather than the body as pain’s source. The treatment is relatively new, but growing rapidly in acceptance, thanks in...

Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Thomas Insel, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, about the failures in mental healthcare and how technology could be an important tool in addressing them.  DR. THOMAS INSEL was the head of the National Institute of Mental Health from 2002 to 2015, during which time he grew concerned about the lack of improvement in mental health outcomes despite great leaps forward in...

Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, a neurologist and professor at Harvard University, about the possible causes of and coming treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease. One of the most complex and mysterious diseases ever known, Alzheimer’s has been the focus of Dr. Tanzi’s professional life for forty years; in 1987 he co-discovered the first gene that causes early onset Alzheimer's as a gradua...

Judith Warner speaks with Dr. John Donoghue about recent advancements in brain computer interface, or BCI, a technology that allows paralyzed people to move and communicate through the power of their thoughts. DR. JOHN DONOGHUE, the H.M. Wriston Professor of Neuroscience and Engineering at Brown University, has been a pioneer in the field of BCI research for over four decades, contributing to many...

The last decade has seen astonishing advancements in brain science that have opened doors to new ways of treating trauma, depression, and pain. Each week, host Judith Warner talks to leading brain experts about how their research is making possible the kinds of things that, just a few years ago, might have seemed like science fiction. The World as You'll Know It returns for a third season on Augus...

Kurt Andersen speaks with economist and author, Mariana Mazzucato, about how governments should be proactive investors in and stewards of technological innovation in order to increase technology’s benefits for the common good.  MARIANA MAZZUCATO is a professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for...

Kurt Andersen speaks with computer scientist Stuart Russell about the risks of machines reaching superintelligence and advancing beyond human control. In order to avoid this, Russel believes, we need to start over with AI and build machines that are uncertain about what humans want. STUART RUSSELL is a computer scientist and professor at University of California Berkeley. He is the author, most re...

Kurt Andersen speaks with Genevieve Bell, cultural anthropologist and founding director of The School of Cybernetics, about how people adapt to changes in artificial intelligence and the way these technologies impact the way we live. GENEVIEVE BELL is an Australian anthropologist and the founding director of The School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University. She is also a Senior Fell...

Kurt Andersen speaks with Roger McNamee, the author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe, about the evolution of Facebook and other big tech companies, and what measures might be taken to curb their influence.      ROGER MCNAMEE is a buѕіnеѕѕmаn, іnvеѕtоr, vеnturе саріtаlіѕt, muѕісіаn and author. He іѕ thе fоundіng раrtnеr оf thе vеnturе саріtаl fіrm, Еlеvаtіоn Раrtnеrѕ, and the co-fou...

Host of this season’s The World as You’ll Know It, Kurt Andersen, speaks with Alison Gopnik, cognitive scientist, author, and professor of psychology at the University of California Berkeley, about the way technology is shaping the way we think, learn and make decisions.  ALISON GOPNIK is a professor of psychology at the University of California Berkeley. Gopnik is a psychologist and cognitive sci...

Host of this season’s The World as You’ll Know It, Kurt Andersen, speaks with Sinan Aral, professor at MIT and author of “The Hype Machine,” about the promise and peril of social media, and the ways it tricks our brains into wanting more.  SINAN ARAL is the David Austin Professor of Management, Marketing, IT, and Data Science at MIT; director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy; and head...

Technology is at an inflection point. Can we harness it to make life better...or will it harness us? Join Kurt Andersen as he and a world-class selection of thinkers explore this question as it pertains to our brains, our personal lives, our laws and our government. The World as You'll Know It returns for a second season on August 24th.

This week features two conversations. In the first, Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic for The New York Times, speaks to Julián Castro, former mayor of San Antonio, Texas and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, about the housing crisis and the role cities play in national politics. Then Michael speaks with Janette Sadik-Khan, former Commissioner of New York City Department o...

Paul Tough, author, most recently, of "The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us," speaks to Paul LeBlanc, President of Southern New Hampshire University, about whether Covid will serve as a catalyst to finally force a re-thinking of higher education.  PAUL TOUGH is the author of The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us and How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity,...

Steven Greenhouse, the author of "Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor," speaks to Jared Bernstein, former Chief Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, about how Covid has underscored economic inequality, and what he believes can be done about it. STEVEN GREENHOUSE was a reporter for The New York Times for over thirty years, covering labor and the workplac...

Steven Greenhouse, the author of "Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor," speaks to David Autor, the Ford Professor of Economics at MIT, about how Covid is likely to change the workforce by accelerating automation and reducing the number of low-wage jobs.  STEVEN GREENHOUSE was a reporter for The New York Times for over thirty years, covering labor and the workpla...

David Wallace-Wells, the author of "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming" speaks to Christiana Figueres, the former Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, about the catastrophic difference between the earth's temperature rising by 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. DAVID WALLACE-WELLS is the author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, a best-sellin...

Welcome to The World as You'll Know It, a new podcast that pairs established journalists with experts to discuss the ways in which Covid-19 will shape the course of the future.