Cleo Abram

Most people think of diamonds as expensive jewelry, or maybe as super-hard drills. But everyone’s missing the coolest story here…

We’ve built giant machines that can recreate the conditions inside our planet. And found new ways to make diamonds way cheaper, now unlocking the hidden potential of this super material.

People are sending diamonds into space, adding them to massive computers, and using them to help solve one of the biggest technological problems we’re about to face.

This is about pushing the limits of material science to benefit all of us. So in this video, we’re getting rare access inside a lab where they make diamonds to see how they actually do it…

And we’re gonna shrink down inside your computer to show you why diamonds are not what you think.

Chapters:
00:00 Diamonds are not what you think
01:38 Where do natural diamonds come from?
02:17 Why are diamonds so hard?
03:48 What's a diamond's secret superpower?
05:09 Why does my computer get so hot?
05:50 How small is a transistor?
06:43 What's the limitation of transistors?
10:32 Who grew a diamond first?
11:49 How do you grow a diamond now?
13:39 Are natural diamonds better than lab grown?
14:24 How could diamonds be used next?
15:21 Why are engineers so excited about diamonds?
16:28 :)

You can find me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
On TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
Or on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, HUGE* If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional reading and watching:
- IEEE, Dr, Chowdhury, Diamond Blankets Will Keep Future Chips Cool: https://spectrum.ieee.org/diamond-thermal-conductivity
- Akash Systems Diamond Cooling: https://akashsystems.com/technology
- The Diamond Makers by Robert M. Hazen
- "How Diamonds May Be Key in Making Microchips Faster" (Wall Street Journal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZImf2IMl6DI
- "How to Make a Real Diamond" (JerryRigEverything): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o5RprIJmfA
- "The Heat Wall AI Can't Climb" (Tiff In Tech): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otUeXLF6tUw
- "The quantum world of diamonds" (Nature): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCT0wDLyvSs
- LattiSpec: https://lattispec.com/
- DARPA Ultra Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Program
- How To Make A Diamond, JerryRigEverything https://youtu.be/6o5RprIJmfA?si=xLu6VpyQKlA62yCY
- The 300-Year Quest to Make Real Diamonds in a Lab, Be Smart https://youtu.be/8ieWJq0MaXw?si=ST6P--N0kDmKSbrA

Special thanks to:
- Robert Basnett, CEO and Dr. William Holber, President and CTO of Plasmability
- Prof. Srabanti Chowdhury of Stanford University
- Pamit Surana, Co-Founder and CCO of Akash Systems
- Liz Chatelain, Co-Founder of LattiSpec
- Dr. Wuyi Yang and Dr. Evan Smith at the GIA
- Dr Daniel Twitchen, Chief Technologist at Element Six (https://e6.com)
- Dr. Samuel Graham, Jr., Dean of the Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland
- Prof. Alastair Stacey from Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
- John Ciraldo, CTO and Brittany Lewis, CCO of WD Advanced Materials

Vox: https://www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/

Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM
Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX and Zoom H4N Pro

Music: Musicbed, Tom Fox

Follow along for more episodes of HUGE* If True:

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F1 isn’t just a car race. It’s a science experiment.
Subscribe to support optimistic tech stories!

You’ve been hearing about F1 too, right? Formula 1 is skyrocketing in popularity in the US, driven in part by the Netflix series Drive To Survive. In this video, we’ll break down exactly what you need to know to keep up with this crazy, expensive sport everyone’s suddenly obsessed with. But we’ll also take a deeper look at the big (HUGE*!) question here, which is: Why do this? Why pour so much money, so many bright minds, so much technological effort into F1… into entertainment?

The answer is in what we get in return. Formula 1 is much more than a car race. It’s a space program, for the road.

Chapters:
00:00 Why is F1 so popular right now?
01:32 Is F1 worth it?
02:09 WTF is F1?
04:15 How does an F1 race work?
04:57 How does F1 scoring work?
05:36 How does an F1 car work?
07:39 What does an F1 team cost?
08:44 Do F1 teams make money?
09:40 Is F1 wasteful?
10:15 Why is F1 a science experiment?
11:23 Does F1 tech help road cars… really?
13:12 What is the future of F1?
13:56 Help :)

Important note (because I never want you to be confused about whether something is sponsored): The Mercedes F1 Team did not pay me or give me a ticket to the Miami Grand Prix. They did however let me into their garage, for which I am very grateful! I’m a huge fan!

Thanks to Johnny Harris for helping me shape this story early on, and to Toni Cowan-Brown for taking the time to look at a cut of this video. It means a lot to be supported by fellow producers!

Be featured in an episode - upload questions for me to answer! https://www.dropbox.com/request/Edocsb2kErpueQ7F9T1Q

You can find me on TikTok here for short, fun tech explainers: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
You can find me on Instagram here for more personal stories: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
You can find me on Twitter here for thoughts, threads and curated news: https://twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, Huge If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional reading and watching:
- My absolute favorite newsletter on F1, Engine Failure by Lily Herman: https://tinyurl.com/3dccc5fa
- “F1 - the plane that never takes off,” with Toni Cowan-Brown and Benedict Evans: https://another-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/f1-the-plane-that-never-takes-off
- “F1 Aerodynamics: The Basics” by Chain Bear (LOVE this channel) https://youtu.be/ZFEzMKYjShc
- “F1 Drivers Explain F1,” from F1 https://youtu.be/twAlqtvVMdc
- “How a Formula 1 Race Car Works” by Animagraffs https://youtu.be/V7707zEX9X4
- “The Insane Logistics of F1,” by Wendover Productions https://youtu.be/6OLVFa8YRfM
- “Why F1 Banned Their Best Car,” by Donut Media (highly recommend this channel!) https://youtu.be/NBWfnOhc34I
- “How to Make F1 Sounds,” by Matt Chambers :) https://youtu.be/I_jDJvfYEgA

Vox: https://www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/

Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM
Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX and Zoom H4N Pro

Music: Musicbed

Follow along for more episodes of Huge If True: https://www.youtube.com/cleoabram?sub_confirmation=1

—
Welcome to the joke down low (an idea 100% in reference to Answer In Progress’ awesome “joke below the fold” - I always scroll down to see them and always wanted to do

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This is ANTARCTICA. And in 1985, it became the center of a global crisis…

Directly over Antarctica, high up in the stratosphere was a massive hole. And if we hadn’t done anything about it, today, we’d be living in an alternate world.

By now, a hole would be forming over the North Pole as well. By 2040, the “hole” would be over the entire planet. By 2065, skin cancer rates would be soaring. Kids wouldn’t play outside much anymore…

But that’s NOT the world we’re living in! In fact, you’ve probably stopped hearing this story altogether.
That wasn’t by accident. It was a choice. Two choices, both of which dramatically changed the course of human history for the better.

So let me show you how that happened and what's about to happen next. Because it turns out, the little sliver at the bottom of the map is actually the center of everything/our whole planet.

And you need to see this now, because scientists say we need to make the next big choice.

Visit http://mercury.com to join over 300 thousand entrepreneurs who love Mercury. Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

Chapters
00:00 What happened to the ozone hole?
02:22 How do you get to Antarctica?
05:06 What is the ozone layer?
07:16 Who owns Antarctica?
08:47 Is Antarctica the center of the planet?
09:32 How much ice is in Antarctica?
10:24 Is that a penguin?!
10:35 What is the Antarctic Treaty?
11:25 What caused the ozone hole?
12:12 How did we fix the ozone hole?
13:33 What are the Blue Rivers?
14:23 What's happening to the ice in Antarctica?
15:05 What’s the next big choice?
16:06 :)

Special thanks to Dr. Steven Chown, Rebecca Warne and all of the amazing guides from the White Desert Foundation leading Science Week .

You can find me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
On TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
Or on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, HUGE* If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional reading and watching:
More videos on the ozone hole and Antarctica:
- Our previous HUGE* episode, “What’s Hidden Under Antarctica?” https://youtu.be/XfGEMCb6BQU?si=QAI_OwQ4K4EdAwkO
- “Why You Don’t Hear About the Ozone Layer Anymore”, Vox https://youtu.be/CaLOiGEDPJQ?si=oc8RRdtmyA0Za0Z8
- “What If All of Antarctica's Ice Suddenly Melted?”, What If https://youtu.be/HesXeHI0vEU?si=VaHHp4FXj4cMoAuY
- “What I Saw In Antarctica”, StarTalk https://youtu.be/pxUNoGzPjHw?si=cq4_NOmAhXhk1W7H
For more on the Ozone Hole and recent research:
- https://news.mit.edu/2026/scientists-find-ozone-depletion-began-decades-before-ozone-hole-discovery-0629
- https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/is-the-ozone-hole-causing-climate-change/
- https://ourworldindata.org/ozone-layer-context
- https://www.rgs.org/about-us/our-work/latest-news/commemorating-40-years-since-discovery-of-ozone-hole
- https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/scientific-biographies/susan-solomon/
- https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/emissions-of-substances-that-deplete-the-ozone-layer-have-fallen-by-more-than-99-since-1989
NASA prediction models:
- https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/the-world-we-avoided-by-protecting-the-ozone-layer/
- https://science

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These trees have been genetically modified to capture more carbon. Should we use them?
Subscribe to support optimistic science and tech journalism!

You may have heard that the United States Supreme Court recently weakened the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate emissions. That decision harms our ability to fight climate change. In this video, I look for hope in a new research effort - but it's important that new science be paired with regulation. As Mr Beast put it in this video, "we're going to need all the help we can get."

Recently, I visited a greenhouse full of super trees. Over the past few decades, genetic engineering has given us the power to manipulate living things - crops, animals, even humans. At the same time, we’ve been unable to adequately slow climate change. The trees I saw are an effort to use one to help the other, led by a group of researchers at a company called Living Carbon. If it works, it could strengthen one of our best allies in this fight.

Hold on though, easier said than done. In this video, we go behind the scenes with one big, ambitious project. We explore the major challenges to getting this right, and the reasons planting trees has become controversial in the fight against climate change. Along the way, I visit Living Carbon’s lab and greenhouse, and interview CEO Maddie Hall and CTO Patrick Mellor.

The really HUGE idea here isn’t so much about these plants as it is about us. It’s the idea that sometime soon, humanity is going to need to take on a responsibility no species has ever had before: To deliberately, continuously regulate the atmosphere of a planet on behalf of every living thing on it.

And we need to decide: How much do we change other species to do it?

Chapters:
00:00 What are supertrees?
01:44 How do you edit tree genes?
02:26 What’s different about these trees?
03:45 Do these trees really suck in more CO2?
04:18 Thank you Masterworks!
05:24 Why not just plant more trees?
06:44 Why is planting trees controversial?
07:57 What about invasive species?
09:24 What do supertrees look like?
10:19 What’s next for Living Carbon?
11:00 What’s the HUGE* vision here?
12:05 Credits

Be featured in an episode - upload questions for me to answer! https://www.dropbox.com/request/Edocsb2kErpueQ7F9T1Q

You can find me on TikTok here for short, fun tech explainers: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
You can find me on Instagram here for more personal stories: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
You can find me on Twitter here for thoughts, threads and curated news: https://twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, Huge If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Vox: https://www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/

Additional reading and watching:
- “If We Plant 1 TRILLION Trees Can We Stop Climate Change?” Be Smart https://youtu.be/PX1Rc0xlUpk
- “These ‘supertrees’ are engineered to capture more carbon” Fast Company https://www.fastcompany.com/90646232/these-supertrees-are-engineered-to-capture-more-carbon
- “Photosynthesis Enhanced Trees Grow Faster and Capture More Carbon” Living Carbon https://www.livingcarbon.com/post/photosynthesis-enhanced-trees-grow-faster-and-capture-more-carbon
- “Enhanced photosynthetic efficiency for increased carbon assimilation and woody biomass production

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Off the coast of Sicily, there’s a massive underwater machine. It looks like a forest of floating spheres…

And on the surface, hidden in an abandoned winery, a computer watches them and waits. And in 2023, they saw something…

Something WAY smaller than an electron tore through that forest, setting off a signal nearly 30x more powerful than anything like it we’ve seen before, which means something HUGE must have happened way out in space.

This crazy experiment is not alone! Down in Antarctica, buried deep in the ice, are over 5000 more of these mysterious spheres.

Together, these two machines – called KM3net and Ice Cube – are part of a massive global effort to give us a brand new way to find and look inside the biggest, most extreme, cosmic events in our universe.

But to do it, they need to catch the most elusive particle in all of physics.

And in this episode of HUGE* If True, we’re going to show you how…

This episode was made possible by AT and T, the official connectivity partner of HUGE* If True.

Chapters:
00:00 What's the machine hidden under the sea?
02:40 What is a neutrino?
03:24 How do we know what's out in the universe?
06:06 How do you catch a neutrino?
08:08 Why can’t we see neutrinos?
11:42 How do you know you’ve detected a neutrino?
12:27 What’s hiding underneath Antarctica?
13:08 What have we discovered with neutrinos?
14:44 What don’t we know yet?
15:03 Why is this HUGE* If True?
15:44 :)

You can find me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
On TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
Or on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, HUGE* If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional reading and watching:
- Astro[sound]bites: Episode 108: 2000 Meters under the Mediterranean: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-108-2000-meters-under-the-mediterranean/id1485957691?i=1000715791463&l=es-MX
- Dan Hooper’s Podcast “Why This Universe”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-this-universe/id1523312400
- IceCube and KM3NeT’s YouTube channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/KM3NeTneutrino https://www.youtube.com/c/IceCubeNeutrino
- PhysicsGirl: My first science video in 3 years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3m3AMRlYfc
- Video from Space: “Highest energy neutrinos ever observed detected deep in Mediterranean Sea” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdxoVeIq31k
- TED-Ed: Why neutrinos matter - Sílvia Bravo Gallart https://youtu.be/nkydJXigkRE?si=Bi4CPBLu3pKhy39X
- KM3NeT: https://www.km3net.org/
- IceCube: https://icecube.wisc.edu/
- IceCubeGen2: https://icecube-gen2.wisc.edu/
- Cosmogenic candidate lights up KM3NeT: https://cerncourier.com/a/cosmogenic-candidate-lights-up-km3net/
- Observation of an ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrino with KM3NeT: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08543-1
- Multimessenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat1378
Evidence for neutrino emission from the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg3395

Special thanks to:
- INFN
- Pasquale Migliozzi
- Marco Circella (for all the incredible archive from KM3NeT)
- Alin Ilioni (for 3D Models)
- Annarita Margiotta
- Tommaso Chiarusi
- Carlos Maximiliano Mollo (for the tour

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This new image will help us answer the biggest question: Are we alone?
Subscribe if you love optimistic technology stories.

NASA just released the first pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever built. They’re incredible. They show the deepest we’ve ever seen into space, stars being born, galaxies colliding. But the least beautiful one is my favorite. It’s the spectrum of exoplanet WASP 96-b. In simpler terms, it’s a picture of the atmosphere of a planet over 1,000 light years away. Most simply put… it’s our new way to find aliens.

Subscribe for more Huge If True: https://www.youtube.com/cleoabram?sub_confirmation=1

Chapters:
00:00 First images from the James Webb Space Telescope
00:52 Where are all the aliens?
01:34 How does the James Webb Space Telescope find life?
02:43 How do we know what's on other planets?
03:35 What did the James Webb Space Telescope find?
04:09 What does it mean that we found water??
04:49 What happens next??

Be featured in an episode - upload questions for me to answer! https://www.dropbox.com/request/Edocsb2kErpueQ7F9T1Q

You can find me on TikTok here for short, fun tech explainers: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
You can find me on Instagram here for more personal stories: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
You can find me on Twitter here for thoughts, threads and curated news: https://twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, Huge If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Vox: https://www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/

Additional reading and watching:
- Full NASA images: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages
- Explore the stars with the incredible NASA interactive I use in this video: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/eyes-on-exoplanets
- Check out Jim's Cosmos Editable Sky Chart (edited and printed for this video!) https://www.jimscosmos.com/editableallskychart
- The James Webb Telescope launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nT7JGZMbtM&ab_channel=NASA
- “The 1995 Hubble photo that changed astronomy” (we still love you Hubble!) https://youtu.be/95Tc0Rk2cNg
- “The Insane Engineering of James Webb Telescope” https://youtu.be/aICaAEXDJQQ
- More from me on the James Webb Telescope on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram/video/7119264354905689386?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM
Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX and Zoom H4N Pro

Music: Musicbed

Follow along for more episodes of Huge If True: https://www.youtube.com/cleoabram?sub_confirmation=1

—
Welcome to the joke down low:

What is Saturn’s favorite movie?
Lord of the Rings.

Find a way to use the word “favorite” in a comment to let me know you’re a real one ;)

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If you dove into the sun, the first layer you’d hit is hot enough to make diamonds BOIL.

Right now we’re in a golden age of new solar science. For the first time, we’re getting close-up pictures of the Sun like we’ve never seen. Sending probes into its atmosphere. And revealing secrets about our star we never thought possible…

Trust me, after this video, you’ll never look up at the sun the same way.

So let me take you on a journey… INTO THE SUN.

This episode was made possible by AT and T, the official connectivity partner of HUGE* If True.

Chapters
00:00 What happens if you dive into the Sun?
01:11 Is the Sun a giant ball of fire?
03:16 How far away is the Sun?
06:17 What does the Sun sound like?
07:13 Are solar storms dangerous?
09:14 What is the surface of the Sun like?
11:31 Why does light get trapped inside the Sun?
12:51 How do we know what's inside the Sun?
14:20 How does the Sun make energy?
15:39 How big is the Sun?
16:01 When will the Sun die?
17:05 What don’t we know about the Sun?
18:02 :)

You can find me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
On TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
Or on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, HUGE* If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional Reading and Watching:
- Parker Solar Probe (NASA) https://science.nasa.gov/mission/parker-solar-probe/, https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/traveling-to-the-sun-why-wont-parker-solar-probe-melt/
- Solar Dynamics Observatory (NASA) https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
- Solar Orbiter (ESA) https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter
- Images of a Sunspot: https://nso.edu/press-release/inouye-solar-telescope-releases-first-image-of-a-sunspot/#foobox-1/0/reconstruction3_lin-CC12.jpg
- Sounds of the Sun: https://science.nasa.gov/sun/what-is-the-solar-wind/
- Solar Cycles: https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/about/k-12-education/space-weather/what-was-the-carrington-event
- Bubbling on the Sun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znBesUwVOok
- Zoom in on the Sun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9E2-sSHYjw&t=3s
- Helioseismology: http://nso.edu/research/helioseismology/
- Nuclear Fusion: https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Nuclear_fusion_in_the_Sun

Vox: https://www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/

Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM
Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX and Zoom H4N Pro

Music: Musicbed, Tom Fox

Follow along for more episodes of HUGE* If True: https://www.youtube.com/cleoabram?sub_confirmation=1

—
Hey, welcome to the joke down low!

What did the photon take on vacation?
Nothing, it travels light

Find a way to use “light” in a comment to let me know you’re a real one who made it to the end of the description :)

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Self driving is here. But not like you thought.
Subscribe to support optimistic tech journalism!

I’ll admit it. I’d gotten cynical about self driving cars. It feels like every 3 years, we’re told they’ll be here in another 3 years. Recently though, I saw a video that shocked me: Kyle Vogt, CEO of Cruise, called for a taxi and a driverless car arrived. He was just one of hundreds of people across San Francisco who are getting into their ride and finding no one else inside.

So... are self-driving cars finally here?

I took a deep dive into that question over the last few months, trying to piece together all the other self-driving stuff I’ve heard about to get the full picture. I ended up in San Francisco, interviewing Kyle himself!

The answer I found to whether self-driving is here is: YES. Just not like I thought. It’s not the sci-fi version I was expecting. Instead, it’s actually two kinds of autonomous vehicles, battling it out on the roads right now. And our lives are about to look very different depending on who wins.

Chapters:
00:00 Self driving cars are finally here
02:15 Levels of self driving, explained
03:32 Where are we now on self driving cars?
05:07 Thank you Masterworks!
06:10 The big fight for the future of driverless cars
07:04 Interviewing Kyle Vogt, CEO of Cruise
08:20 Robotaxi meets world (and police)
10:00 The two near futures of self driving
11:52 The long term future of driving

Important note (because I never want you to be confused about whether something is sponsored): The only sponsor in this video is Masterworks, which means they got to approve their ad section beforehand, but didn't get a say in the rest of the video. Cruise did not pay me for being part of this video. I did an interview with the Cruise CEO and Cruise let me see their Bolt car, for which I'm very grateful!

Be featured in an episode - upload questions for me to answer! https://www.dropbox.com/request/Edocsb2kErpueQ7F9T1Q

You can find me on TikTok here for short, fun tech explainers: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
You can find me on Instagram here for more personal stories: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
You can find me on Twitter here for thoughts, threads and curated news: https://twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, Huge If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Vox: https://www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/

Additional reading and watching:
- “My first fully driverless pickup!” Cruise https://youtu.be/dmvZBiWYkFQ
- “Why You Should Want Driverless Cars On Roads Now,” Veritasium https://youtu.be/yjztvddhZmI
- “From 1956: A future vision of driverless cars,” CBS https://youtu.be/F2iRDYnzwtk
- “Self-Driving Big Rigs Are Coming. Is America Ready?” Christopher Mims, Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/self-driving-big-rigs-are-coming-is-america-ready-11655524823
- “Beyond Tesla: Driverless Startups Promise Next-Level Autonomous Vehicles,” Wall Street Journal Video https://youtu.be/UdOxt11ofjQ
- “Are Driverless Trucks The Future Of Shipping? Inside Waymo’s New Test Program,” NBC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lon1vRv2wQ8&t=1s&ab_channel=NBCNews
- “75 Minutes of Autonomous Driving with Kyle Vogt and Sam Altman,” Cruise https://youtu.be/sliYTyRpRB8
- “3 Generations of Driverless Delivery Vehicles,” WIRED https://yout

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What’s happening right now is a big deal.
For more HUGE* Conversations with the most important leaders in science and tech, subscribe!

The biggest AI launch since ChatGPT just happened... and Alexandr Wang and his team at Meta built it.

Most people are using AI to answer questions, glorified Google Search.
This is something totally different. It’s an "agent." It can make phonecalls, do tasks, for you.

But for it to work, you have to trust it. First with your personal information. Then that it’s going to do what you actually want. And then that it’s not gonna, well, get out of control. All at a time when the people building the most powerful AI leaders are warning us that AI IS getting out of control!

If you understand Muse, you’ll understand the biggest open questions about AI right now.

In this HUGE* Conversation with Meta AI Chief Alexandr Wang, that's what we do.

What can Muse actually do? When can we trust it? And what should we do to make sure this goes right?

HUGE* Conversations is an independent journalistic interview show. Our mission is to show the futures the most important leaders in science and tech are building, so you can decide for yourself what you think of them. Interviewees do not see questions ahead of time, have any editorial control, get paid or pay HUGE*, or see the HUGE* Conversation before publication.

Chapters:
0:00 What is Muse?
1:30 Who is Alexandr Wang?
3:04 Why is Muse exploding?
6:45 Why do I need an AI assistant?
10:24 What does an AI agent sound like on the phone?
13:03 Why is Muse a cute little guy?
17:38 What does Meta do with my information?
18:54 Where does my information actually live?
24:18 How do you teach an AI discretion?
29:16 Can AI police other AI?
34:43 What happened in the OpenAI hack?
40:50 How do we regulate AI?
44:29 How fast has AI actually moved?
55:26 Why build an AI agent?
1:00:47 What is personal superintelligence?
1:03:09 What does Alexandr Wang believe about people?
1:06:46 How does Alexandr Wang want to be remembered?
1:08:03 :)

You can find me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
On TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
Or on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, HUGE* If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional Reading and Watching:

For more HUGE* Conversations on tech and AI:
- Demis Hassabis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0gErQtnNFE&t=213s
- Jensen Huang: https://youtu.be/7ARBJQn6QkM?si=TWH3926rxL4rIZ1V
- Sam Altman:https://youtu.be/hmtuvNfytjM?si=r1UNEAZjlfomJ8IN
- Mark Zuckerberg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX7OduG1YmI

For more on Muse from Meta Connect:
https://youtu.be/SdKFDIAGF24?si=ZuZqX7dtIPlnMQvu&t=367

For more on the Hugging Face Hack:
https://youtu.be/87DyyMV0kCY?si=eqo0EfeL9ddrKgaT
- https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/#~1200-agents-sent-%3E70,000-messages-and-files-on-an-unsanctioned-message-board,-and-~700-attacked-hugging-face
- https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/

Ezra Klein’s AI interviews with Jensen Huang and Bill Gates:
https://youtu.be/HjurAWAr_nY?si=iApulyl7U__Sp2ul
https://youtu.be/HjurAWAr_nY?si=rHYJUICuE8nhV6um

Vox: https://www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/

Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Len

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Why DALLE, Midjourney, and other AI image generation tools are so controversial...
Subscribe for more optimistic science and tech stories!

You’ve probably heard about the AI that can make any image you want. With these, anyone can make art in seconds. Artists, understandably, have concerns about that. This technology has quickly become VERY controversial.

Since we got access to DALLE-2 a few weeks ago, my friend Justin and I have been sending our creations back and forth. It’s a lot of fun. Justin is a designer and animator who works with me on Huge If True. He’s an artist. I’m… not so much. What I noticed as Justin and I were making these is: His were way better than mine! It didn’t feel like the AI was leveling the playing field between us. It felt like it was giving me new skills, but it was giving HIM superpowers.

So, we set up a little competition to test that… and you voted on the results.

Along the way, we’ll explain how these artificial intelligence image generation tools (Open AI's DALLE-2, Midjourney, stable diffusion, and more) really work, why they’re so controversial, and why they matter for our future.

00:00 Why am I hearing about AI art?
02:00 How to use DALLE
04:46 Round 1: Cleo with no AI
05:50 Round 1: Justin with no AI
06:36 How do AI art generators work?
08:09 Round 2: Cleo with AI
08:54 Round 2: Justin with AI
09:24 How does DALLE use artists' work?
10:25 Should artists worry about AI?
11:12 Why is AI art so controversial?
12:08 What's next for DALLE?
13:07 RESULTS

Subscribe to see the next episode: https://www.youtube.com/cleoabram?sub_confirmation=1

For more art and animation from Justin: https://www.the11percent.com/

Sources and further reading:
- OpenAI’s tutorial for DALL-E 2: https://openai.com/dall-e-2/
- Free Hugging Face DALLE mini: https://huggingface.co/spaces/dalle-mini/dalle-mini
- Aditya Ramesh’s detailed explanation of how DALLE-2 works: http://adityaramesh.com/posts/dalle2/dalle2.html
- Midjourney’s community showcase: https://www.midjourney.com/showcase/
- Marques Brownlee’s DALLE review: https://youtu.be/yCBEumeXY4A
- Joss Fong’s explainer on how AI image generation works: https://youtu.be/SVcsDDABEkM
- “Generating Images from Captions with Attention” https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.02793

Be featured in an episode - upload questions for me to answer! https://www.dropbox.com/request/Edocsb2kErpueQ7F9T1Q
tw
I tell different stories in different places:
You can find me on TikTok here for short, fun tech explainers: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
You can find me on Instagram here for more personal stories: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
You can find me on Twitter here for thoughts, threads and curated news: https://twitter.com/cleoabram

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated video producer and journalist. Cleo produces detailed explainer stories about technology and economics. She wrote the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained, was the host and a senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, as well as a host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked. She now makes her own independent show, Huge If True. Each episode takes on one big technology innovation or idea, explains what it is, and helps people imagine the ways it could improve the world we live in by answering one simple question: If this works, what could go right?

Vox: https://www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/

Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM
Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX and Zoom H4N Pro

Music: Musicbed

Follow along for more episodes of Huge If True: https://www.youtube.com/cleoabram?sub_confirmation=1

—
Welcome to the joke down low:

What did Vincent say when he couldn't find his car?
Where did my Van Gogh?

Find a way to use the word “car” in a comment to let me know you’re a real on

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