Shaping Science with Nick Dirks

Ian Bogost, PhD, is a philosopher, author, game designer, and professor whose work explores the intersection of technology, media, and culture. Currently the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, he is also a staff writer for The Atlantic where he covers higher education, technology, and more. His most recent book, The Small Things: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life, was published by Atria Books through Simon & Shuster earlier this yearThis episode was recorded during the Blavatnik Science Symposium hosted at The New York Academy of Sciences on July 13, 2026.Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons. For more info, visit: nyas.org/ideas-insights/podcasts/ 00:00 Intro09:40 Gaming: The Intersection of Arts, Creativity, and Computation15:40 Simulation Theory18:57 Representation and Reality23:07 AI Music: What Makes a Band Real or “Fake”?27:30 “The Experience of Doing Things”33:22 How to Ensure the Wealthy Don’t Disproportionately Benefit from AI34:37 Technological Determinists vs Luddites36:41 AI Use in the Classroom and Protecting Academic Integrity38:02 Using AI without Losing Learning Outcomes from Traditional Methods

Alek Kemeny, a member of Anthropic's Beneficial Deployments team, was trained as a quantum physicist and has spent the past year focused on a novel question: What can AI models safely do in the physical world? In August 2026, he co-led the launch of Anthropic's Model Hardware Standard, a new open specification that lets AI models like Claude read from and operate real laboratory and manufacturing equipment – including microscopes, robotic arms, liquid handlers, and lasers – through one common interface instead of relying on months of bespoke integration.This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons.More about Anthropic's Model Hardware Standard.For more info, visit: nyas.org/ideas-insights/podcasts/ 00:00 Intro01:49 Leaving Academia for Industry07:53 The Advent of ChatGPT13:03 From Theorist to Experimentalist21:53 Applied AI in Enterprise Tech Sales25:47 When Claude AI Accurately Detected the Alveus in a Mouse Brain32:14 Model Hardware Standard: Claude AI and Scientific Research46:38 Devices Optimized for AI, Tangible Results, and AI Safety

Dr. Seven Rasmussen is an astrobiologist, author, educator, and science communicator whose work explores one of humanity’s oldest questions: are we alone in the universe? Dr. Rasmussen studies how planets form, evolve, and potentially support life, while also bringing these ideas to wider audiences through her writing. Rasmussen’s recent book, ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Starships,’ uses the famous Drake Equation as a starting point for exploring the odds of intelligent life beyond Earth.Cloudy with a Chance of Starships: How the Drake Equation Reveals the Odds of Life in the Cosmos was published in 2026 by Princeton University PressThis episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons.00:00 Intro01:53 How Did You Become Interested in Astrobiology?08:02 From Active Galactic Nuclei to Nuclear Astrophysics to Exoplanets11:10 Exploring Science Fiction Writing14:56 Writing about Science for a General Readership18:03 What is the Drake Equation?19:05 The Principle Issues in Cosmological Thinking 23:07 What Habitability in the Cosmos Means29:10 The One Place on Earth that Doesn’t Have Life33:08 Understanding Exoplanets 35:57 Finding Microbial Life Elsewhere in the Solar System38:29 How to Become an Astrobiologist43:34 The Need for Effective Science Communicators

Josh Lerner, a leading expert on venture capital, private equity, and innovation policy, is an economist and the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School. Over the past three decades, his research has shaped how governments, investors, and entrepreneurs understand the financing of innovation. Prof. Lerner’s work explores when markets succeed, when public policy fails, and what it really takes to build sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems. His newest book ‘Rethinking Innovation’ with Jean Tirole, published earlier this year by Princeton University Press, explores how corporations have increasingly embraced the sharing of knowledge as a competitive strategy. He was also the recipient of the Academy’s inaugural Constellation Award earlier this year.This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons.00:00 Intro 02:00 The Innovation Economy and Innovation Policy 08:47 The Silicon Valley: Venture Capital, Innovation and Entrepreneurship 13:55 How Does Venture Capital Work? 20:05 Challenges Around the Innovation Economy/Ecosystem 24:53 The Global Environment Around Successful Innovation Zones 33:58 Developing Funding Mechanisms for Outside-the-Box Research 39:22 The Multi-Dimensional Role of Patents in Innovation 42:02 Regulating Innovation: Quantum Computing, AI, and Beyond 48:09 China’s Innovation Economy  

Hans Peter Brondmo is a technology entrepreneur, former Google Vice President, and a leading thinker on artificial intelligence, robotics, and the future of work. He has founded several startups and held positions at Nokia in Berlin, Apple in Tokyo, and at CERN in Geneva. At Google’s X — the “moonshot factory” — he founded and led the Everyday Robots project, an ambitious effort to build general-purpose robots capable of working alongside humans in everyday environments. Across a career spanning Silicon Valley, startups, and global tech leadership, Brondmo has consistently been at the forefront of emerging technologies — from early internet marketing to social networks and now embodied AI. This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons. 00:00 Intro02:21 “Nerd Credentials”06:40 From Toy Trains and Ham Radio to Computers and Robots11:12 Finding Success as an Entrepreneur13:58 Building Robots for Google: “Breaking Glass, but Not Too Much”17:18 Pre-LLMs: The Robotic Scene in 201623:30 The Theory of the Robot in 201930:57 Parallels Between LLMs and Robotics 36:30 The Current State of Robotics44:45 Moving Toward an AI Society

Peter Agre, MD, is a physician, molecular biologist, and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (2003) whose discovery of aquaporin water-channel proteins transformed our understanding of how water moves through cell membranes. He is also a passionate advocate of global health, malaria research and holds the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship at Johns Hopkins University. He is also a strong believer in science diplomacy and the role of scientists in geopolitics as described in his book - Can Scientists Succeed Where Politicians Fail? - published in 2025 by Johns Hopkins University Press.This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons.00:00 Intro04:56 The Significance of Discovering Aquaporins10:52 Curiosity-Driven Science: When Research Interests Meet Serendipity16:31 From Nobel Laureate to Malaria Researcher25:24 Utilizing Ancient Chinese Remedies32:15 Can Scientists Succeed Where Politicians Fail?37:17 The Role of Healthcare in the Origins of the Cuban Revolution41:29 The Current Climate for Science Diplomacy

Thomas Levenson is a historian of science and Professor of Science Writing at MIT. He has written several bestselling narrative histories covering topics from Isaac Newton’s unexpected career as a crime fighter to the 1720 South Sea Bubble, now recognized as one of the world's first financial crises. Levenson explores how scientific ideas emerge, collide with politics, and reshape society and the modern world. His work brings together science, history, and human drama, showing how discovery is never isolated from culture, power, and chance.A Pox on Fools: The True Believers, Grifters, and Cynics Who Convinced Us to Reject Vaccines was published in 2026 by Penguin Random House.This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons.00:00 Intro02:03 From East Asian Studies major to science writer05:18 Climate Science in the 1980s15:22 Measure for Measure: A Musical History of Science22:35 A Hunt for an Imaginary Planet and an Imaginary Fortune27:24 Einstein and Two World Wars34:43 From Early 18th Century South Sea Explorations to 21st Century Advances in AI36:34 Moments of Unreason, Folley, and Fraud in Science47:08 Germ Theory, Public Health, Antibiotics, and Vaccines52:39 The Andrew Wakefield Paper: Fraudulent in Everyway

Emily Eakin, senior editor at The New York Times Book Review, whose pieces have also been published in The New Yorker, Vogue, The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and more. She recently published her first book, ‘The Frenchmen, or My Life in Theory,’ which tells the improbable story of the prominent French philosophers that had profound and lasting influence in the 1980s and ’90s. Their impact on American education and intellectual culture was immense, with some of their ideas tying into the cultural wars of present day.‘The Frenchmen Or, My Life in Theory’ was published in 2026 by Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/317335/the-frenchmen-by-emily-eakin/ This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons: https://www.tata.com/business/tata-sons 00:00 Intro05:50 The Personal and Intellectual History of Language13:28 A More Scientific Way of Interpreting Meaning in Language18:40 The Intellectual Embrace of Structuralism24:40 The French Impact on American Higher Education28:50 The Emergence of Poststructuralist Thought32:56 The Role of Jean-Jacques Rousseau37:00 The Specter of Jacques Derrida43:35 The Role of Michel Foucault

Diana Reiss is a cognitive psychologist and one of the world’s leading researchers on animal cognition and consciousness. Best known for her groundbreaking work demonstrating mirror self-recognition in dolphins – a discovery that challenged long-standing assumptions about human cognitive uniqueness, Reiss has spent decades studying how dolphins and other animals think, communicate, and understand themselves, while also translating this science into advocacy for animal welfare and conservation. This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons. 00:00 Intro 01:38 From the Arts to the Sciences 07:02 Working with Whales and Dolphins 13:05 The Physiology, Neuroscience, and Consciousness of Dolphins  17:26 The Mirror Test: Utilizing Set Design Skills 26:10 Evolution and the Stages of Development 30:41 Mirror Self-Recognition with Different Mammals 37:17 How Animal Consciousness Relates to Human Consciousness  42:58 Advocating for Better Treatment of Animals 

Andrea Wulf is an internationally bestselling historian and author whose work has reshaped how we understand the relationship between science, nature, and culture. Across her work, Wulf brings to life the intellectual networks and ideas that have shaped modern understandings of the natural world, from Enlightenment science to Romantic philosophy. Her latest book, ‘The Traveler,’ is a sweeping biography of George Forster, the visionary 18th-century naturalist and explorer, which chronicles his journey from a child prodigy sailing with Captain Cook to a radical voice advocating for universal human rights. Visit: penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768155/the-traveler-by-andrea-wulf/ This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons. For more info, visit: nyas.org/ideas-insights/podcasts/ 00:00 Intro 02:14 The Life of Alexander van Humboldt  08:36 The Politics of Nature vs Climate 11:31 Stanger Than Fiction: Creating a Compelling Narrative through Primary Source Materials 15:15 From the World to the Self 19:14 The Most Fascinating Man Most People Have (Probably) Never Heard Of  25:20 Developing a Theory of the 18th Century World  32:32 A Stunning and Correct Theory of Polynesian Migration 40:28 Almost Lost to History 44:06 A Tumultuous and Tragic Life that Ended Too Soon