What if we could predict the world’s most dangerous weather events—not days, but weeks in advance? Extreme events like heat waves, hurricanes, and floods cause massive loss of life and billions in damage, but they’re also some of the hardest events for traditional weather forecasting to predict.

In this episode, Assoc. Prof. Pedram Hassanzadeh of the University of Chicago explains why forecasting extreme weather has long pushed science to its limits—and how a new wave of AI models could transform the field at a time when climate change is making these events more common. By learning directly from decades of atmospheric data, these systems can generate forecasts faster, more cheaply, and in some cases more accurately than traditional models—even to predict freak ‘gray swan’ weather events no one has ever seen.

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In recent years, a judge in one state had gained the power to halt policies across the entire United States. Known as nationwide or universal injunctions, these actions have become one of the sweeping tools in the federal court—affecting cases ranging from student loan forgiveness to environmental policies to birthright citizenship.

How did universal injunctions become such a central feature of modern constitutional battles? And should one judge really be able to block a policy for the entire country? In this episode, UChicago legal scholar Samuel Bray explains the history and legal debate behind such actions, including his research which was cited more than a dozen times in the 2025 Supreme Court case Trump v. Casa, which examined how courts use this remedy—and whether injunctions fit within the Constitution’s design.

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Artificial intelligence may live in “the cloud,” but its footprint is firmly on the ground. As AI systems grow more powerful, the data centers that train and run them are consuming massive amounts of land, water and electricity—as well as reshaping regional power grids. What does this surge in demand mean for the environment, energy infrastructure, and the future of innovation?

In this episode, we speak with UChicago computer scientist Andrew Chien, an expert in large-scale computing and cloud computing, about why these data centers require so much power, why they’re stirring such controversy—and whether there are sustainable approaches that could keep our energy use in check.

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When a two-year-old boy suffered a catastrophic injury that severed the connection between his skull and spine, doctors across Europe told his family there was no hope. His spinal cord was completely severed, and the injury was not considered survivable. But University of Chicago neurosurgeon Mohamad Bydon saw a possibility.

In this episode of Big Brains, Dr. Bydon walks us through the extraordinary, multi-stage surgery at UChicago that not only saved the boy’s life but helped him regain the ability to breathe, talk and move his fingers and toes. He examines the future of surgery for spinal cord injury patients—from minimally invasive surgery techniques to robotic surgery and AI to stem cell therapy—is even helping some paralyzed patients regain movement and even walk again after their injuries.

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In today’s world, our brains are overloaded with information, making it hard to focus and remember. But what are the true limits of the human mind—and why do they exist? And why are some people seem so much better than remembering things than others? In this episode, we talk with with Edward Awh, a cognitive neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. Whose lab studies how the brain controls focus, memory and attention.

His research explores the connection between attention and working memory, why our conscious awareness is far more limited than it feels, and what those limits mean for life in an information-saturated world. He explains what we can actually do to improve our memory—including one easy thing we can all do every day—and how using the “remote control of your mind” could help you focus your attention, given the limited space in our brains.

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The process of understanding who we are is a lifelong journey for many of us. For two decades, that question has been one that University of Chicago scholar Eric Oliver has asked his students in class—and inspired him to write a new book called "How to Know Your Self: The Art & Science of Discovering Who You Really Are."

A renowned political scientist, Oliver draws upon science, philosophy, psychology and his personal experiences to better examine the mysteries of the human experience—and explore what it truly means to be “you.”

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What if we could precisely measure a cell at its most fundamental level? In this episode, we talk with the University of Chicago scientist Peter Maurer about how he and his colleagues made the breakthrough discovery of turning a protein found in living cells into the first biological quantum bit, also known as a qubit.

Maurer explains how quantum systems—once thought to be too fragile for real-world use—are becoming some of the most powerful sensors ever built, and what they could teach us about the brain, the body and more.

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We've all heard the phrase "Manifest Your Destiny" when it comes to wanting a new promotion, figuring out a new career path or just trying to achieve that long-term goal. It turns out that the act of manifestation is not merely pseudoscience—it actually has a body of research in neuroscience to back it up.

James Doty was a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University, and founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. He wrote several books, including Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything.

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The internet and social media have transformed the way in which we hear and understand music today—and online communities and platforms from YouTube to TikTok have changed how music circulates and ultimately goes viral. Why do some pop stars have more success creating hit songs and building online following than others?

In this episode, we speak with Paula Clare Harper, a musicologist and assistant professor at the University of Chicago. Harper co-edited the book Taylor Swift: The Star, The Songs, The Fans, which explores the online musical cultures that produced and propelled the image of megastar Taylor Swift. Harper unpacks how gendered narratives around "the fangirl" continue to influence which musical practices we take seriously—and how studying music on the internet helps us understand contemporary cultural power.

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Can you imagine a world in which a wearable device, like a smartwatch, could move your fingers to strum the guitar or play the drums? That kind of technology is part of the innovative research coming out of the Human-Computer Integration Lab at the University of Chicago, led by renowned computer scientist Pedro Lopes. His lab is developing a new generation of gadgets that use haptics (or tactile sensations like the buzz of your smartphone) to move your body, replicate your sense of smell and even make you feel things.

In this episode, Lopes explores the potential of wearable devices to transform our future as well as brain-computer interfaces that are being developed by companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink that directly into the body.

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