Stanford Radio

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman "Scott Delp: Better gait, better life" A biomechanical engineer explains how new diagnostics and improved understanding of human movement are yielding great leaps forward in the treatment of motor dysfunction. Engineer Scott Delp first got interested in the details of human movement when he was injured in a skiing accident and spent five years trying to recover. Back then, today’s powerful diagnostic tools, like MRI, weren’t generally available, and Delp experienced many roadblocks and false starts in his recovery. Delp turned that challenging experience into a career studying and developing new approaches to motor dysfunction that he puts to use helping people with conditions like osteoarthritis and cerebral palsy to walk, run and move more easily and without pain. His multidisciplinary team includes surgeons, neurologists, roboticists, engineers and computer scientists who use sophisticated computer models to analyze movement dysfunction and to counteract them t

The Future of Everytying with Russ Altman "Emma Brunskill: Amped-up education with AI" Computer programs that purport to help humans learn have been around almost as long as there have been computer programs, but their track record for success has been less than impressive. Emma Brunskill, an expert on artificial intelligence and machine learning, thinks that less-than-stellar record is about to change and has dedicated her career to finding new and better ways to teach computers to teach humans. Her research creates innovative "reinforcement learning" algorithms in which computers learn through experience to get better at teaching humans. In the process, the algorithms lead people to make better, more-informed decisions that produce better outcomes in the long run. To Brunskill this is no schoolroom affair, but an endeavor where the stakes are high. She says that better education is key to big societal challenges, like alleviating poverty. She believes that better training of new workers — or retraining o

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman "Sharon Chinthrajah: The air is making us sick" The connection between bad air and bad health is growing clearer by the day. One allergy specialist says that real change starts at home, but ends on a much larger scale. Air quality affects our health far more than many would suspect. It’s closely related to asthma, of course, but also to concerns like cardiovascular disease and other lifespan-reducing conditions. It’s a health emergency, says allergy and asthma specialist Sharon Chinthrajah, a clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford who studies and develops strategies for combatting conditions caused by air pollution. She says there are a number of ways we all can do better, including changing clothes frequently and showering in the evenings to wash away the day’s detritus collected on hair and skin. But, she says, those efforts are only stopgaps to truly solving the problem of air pollution. The most effective responses have to come at a societal leve

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman "Jelena Vuckovic: Photonics — a light on the computing horizon" Photonics engineers are working toward a day when fast, energy efficient computers do their mathematics using photons — packets of light — instead of electrons. Experts estimate that computers gobble up as much as 10% of global electricity. They predict that that share will only grow as data centers expand and the internet of things brings scads of new computer-controlled devices to the world. Jelena Vuckovic is an electrical engineer who sees a light on the horizon — quite literally. She is building computers that calculate and communicate more with photons than electrons. These “photonic” devices could cut energy consumption in half and empower exciting new technologies, like quantum computing, in the process. Before that day can come, however, Vuckovic and other proponents of photonics — the science of using light for practical purposes — will have to design smaller devices and improve manufacturin

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman "Simone D’Amico: “The Swarm” is coming to an orbit near you" A professor of astronautics foresees a new space age in which distributed space systems made of small satellites work in tandem to replace or augment their monolithic ancestors. EPISODE NOTES The geostationary satellites used for communication and weather forecasting today are very large and very expensive — and most are still functioning perfectly when they must be disposed of because they run out of fuel. In their place, Stanford astronautics professor Simone D’Amico imagines an new era of smaller, less expensive, more efficient satellites that work in tandem to accomplish things their bigger brethren never imagined. He calls it distributed space systems — formations or “swarms” of small satellites. Distributed space systems have breakthrough applications in earth and planetary science, astronomy, and astrophysics, as well as in-orbit servicing and space infrastructure. One task D’Amico foresees for wha

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman "Bonnie Maldonado: The science is clear. Vaccinations save lives." An expert in infectious diseases says that vaccinations are more powerful than ever, but better communication by the medical community is needed to combat misinformation. Stanford professor Yvonne “Bonnie” Maldonado is a medical doctor and an expert in pediatric infectious diseases. She has been fighting and preventing disease her entire career. She says that vaccinations have made remarkable progress in recent years and yet, despite well-known programs that have virtually wiped out once-dreaded diseases like measles, smallpox and polio, a more insidious foe than these diseases has appeared — misinformation that sows confusion, fear and distrust of vaccines in the general public. The result has been a worrying reappearance of some of the diseases society has worked so hard to eradicate. But the science is clear: Vaccinations save lives and carry very little to no risk for the vaccinated. Meanwhile,

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman " Michelle Mello: Patient privacy and the law are on a collision course" A rapidly shifting legal debate is raging in healthcare over patient data and privacy. One legal expert says that even though regulations have lagged, a reckoning is due. How much control should patients have over who sees their medical records? How readily should researchers share patient-level data from their clinical studies? In today’s world, should the answers to these questions depend on whether the data are “anonymized?” These are but a few of the ethical and legal conundrums that Michelle Mello, Stanford professor of law and of health research and policy, grapples with on a daily basis. She says that rapidly evolving ways to gather and share medical data are exposing the limitations of laws that protect patient privacy. Meanwhile, the value of sharing patient and clinical data is growing by the day. Data from multiple studies can be pooled to study subgroups or explore rare conditions

Professor Michael Hines discusses how Chicago schools managed classes during the polio crisis in the 1930s that closed schools in the city, and he provides strategies for teachers and parents today. Originally aired April 4, 2020.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman "Alex Dunn: When cells communicate by nudging one another" New research explores how physical pushing and pulling between cells helps them differentiate into the myriad cell types in the body.

Professor Jonathan Rosa joins Dan and Denise to discuss how school communities are coping with the novel coronavirus pandemic, and what issues may emerge during recovery. Originally aired on SiriusXM on March 28, 2020.

Description: From the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education case to voting rights and education, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) has been the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality since its founding in 1940 by legendary civil rights lawyer (and later Supreme Court justice) Thurgood Marshall. Sherrilyn Ifill, LDF’s President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), will discuss important NAACP cases and issues. Originally aired on SiriusXM on March 28, 2020.

Nicole Quinn of Lightspeed Venture Partners Talks About the Growing Numbers of Women in Venture Capital. Quinn talks about listening to core customers and the importance of being open to new ideas. Originally aired on SiriusXM on March 21, 2020.

A marine scientist travels the world to understand whether and how the ocean will respond to climate change, overfishing and other challenges. Fiorenza “Fio” Micheli grew up on the Mediterranean Sea, where she fell in love with the ocean and made it the object of her scientific career. Now a marine ecologist and co-director of Stanford’s Center for Ocean Solutions, her research spans the spectrum of marine science. She has studied the overfishing of sharks and how their absence affects coral reef ecosystems; she has explored the influence of marine protected areas on biodiversity below the waves; she has studied the impacts of the many ways in which we use the ocean — through fishing to farming to recreation — on its ecosystems, and how to more sustainably support these crucial services. And, for lessons on how undersea life might respond to climate change, she traveled to Italy, her home country, to investigate life near undersea volcanic vents that jet carbon dioxide into the seawater like a Jacuzzi. In

The ACLU has been the nation’s premier defender of civil liberties since its founding 100 years ago. David Cole, the ACLU’s national legal director who oversees its entire legal docket, will discuss key civil liberties issues facing the country today including two LGBTQ rights cases that he recently argued before the Supreme Court. Originally aired on March 14, 2020.

How brain mechanisms differ in reading abilities of children on the spectrum and with dyslexia. Originally aired on SiriusXM on March 14, 2020.

Matt Abraham, Professor at Stanford School of Business, Teaches How to be Compelling & Confident When speaking in Any Situation. Abraham, author and coach, explains how to communicate without freaking out. Originally aired on SiriusXM on March 7, 2020.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman "Nick Ouellette: What flocks of birds can tell us about engineering" A civil engineer explains how new insights gleaned from the flight of birds may one day be applied to fields as far-ranging as autonomous cars and crowd control. Anyone who has ever observed a large flock of starlings in flight — darting and swirling as if the entire flock were one big beautiful being — cannot help but marvel and wonder at how all those birds keep from crashing into one another. Nick Ouellette is studying the in-flight behavior of birds to draw lessons he can apply to engineering. He says that birds are not alone in their tightly coordinated patterns of movement; such behaviors can be observed at every scale of nature, from bacteria to bees to beluga whales. Ouellette is doing sophisticated video measurements of flocks in flight to understand just how it is that birds can pull off their beautiful balletics without total chaos. He says the secret is that nature favors decentralize

The open secret of Supreme Court advocacy in a digital era is that there is a new way to argue to the Justices. Originally aired on SiriusXM on February 29, 2020.

Long-term outcomes on the mental health of survivors of mass shootings. Originally aired on SiriusXM on February 29, 2020.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman "Shaili Jain: Treatments for PTSD are more effective than ever" How a revealing father-daughter conversation led to a career dedicated to studying and treating severe trauma and stress-related disorders. Shaili Jain first got interested in studying post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on an East Coast road trip listening to her father describe his experiences during the 1947 Partition of British India. As she listened to details of his trauma and losses, many revealed to her only for the first time, Jain realized she had a deep personal connection to trauma survivors that had, until now, been hidden. This realization spurred a new career, committed to specializing in PTSD and advancing the science of traumatic stress. PTSD became Jain’s life’s work as a medical doctor and a researcher. She would eventually go on to pen a 2019 book, The Unspeakable Mind. Her book combines vividly recounted patient stories, cutting-edge neuroscience, interviews with some of the worl