In the season finale of Art &, we meet Hideo Mabuchi—a quantum physicist, ceramicist, and faculty director of the Stanford Arts Institute—whose creative and scholarly life models what it looks like to teach and research from a place of integration. For Hideo, art and science are not opposites, but complementary ways of thinking, making, and discovering.

In this conversation with host Ellen Oh, Hideo shares how an encounter with Japanese ceramics led to a years-long journey of incorporating material practice into his research and teaching. From firing clay in a wood-burning kiln to running interdisciplinary courses on indigo dye, his work invites students—and fellow faculty—to explore the world through many lenses at once.

Together, Hideo and Ellen reflect on the growing appetite for interdisciplinarity among students, and how faculty can help create space for that complexity. As we imagine new ways of structuring research and teaching, Hideo’s story points to a hopeful future—where art plays a foundational role in helping us ask better questions, expand our methods, and deepen the meaning of our work.

Featured Guest: Hideo Mabuchi

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Credits

Host: Ellen Oh

Creator/Producer/Editor: Taylor Jones

Production Support: Edi Dai

Sound Designer and Mix Engineer: Chase Everett

Theme song and Music: Juana Izuzquiza

Executive Producers: Ellen Oh and Anne Shulock

Artwork: Connie Ko

Special thanks to Deborah Cullinan, Stanford Vice President for the Arts