Dr. Veena Srinivasan - Senior Fellow - Centre for Environment and Development and Director, Centre for Social and Environmental Innovation

Professor Esteban Rossi-Hansberg - Theodore A. Wells '29 Professor of Economics, Princeton University

Summary:

Humans’ choices affect the environment, and the environment shapes human opportunities. So why do we persist in modeling the dynamics of natural and social systems separately? This research gap has enormous practical consequences: The costs of climate change, for example, depend heavily on the costs of adapting to its differential impacts around the world – how can we better understand these costs and shape them? The evolution of watersheds and biodiversity depends on the accumulation of human actions and their interaction with hydrology and ecology. How can we develop solutions without understanding this intersection? This podcast features two leaders in the field of combining social and environmental science at local to global scales, reflecting on their research, its applications, and how to grow the intersection of natural and social science research to guide our public, private, and philanthropic responses to our changing habitats.

Professor C. Jessica Metcalf - Associate Professor of Ecology, Evolutionary Biology & Public Affairs and Professor Anup Malani - Lee and Brena Freeman Professor at the University of Chicago Law School and a Professor at the Pritzker School of Medicine in conversation with Dr. Jessica Seddon

Professor Gabe Vecchi - Professor of Geosciences and The High Meadows Environmental Institute, Director, Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System

Jatin Singh, Founder & Managing Director, Skymet Weather, Pvt Ltd in conversation with Dr. Jessica Seddon. 

2020 was one of the most active global hurricane and cyclone seasons on record, setting records for the size, speed of intensification, and economic impact of storms. The North Indian Ocean was no exception. This episode delves into the historical record and emerging scientific understanding of storm formation to put the 2020 weather in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea into a longer-run context. Speakers discuss the evolving business and social interest in weather and climate data, as well as the underlying collaboration and public investments to understand a region as complex as the North Indian Ocean. 

TM Krishna - Carnatic vocalist, activist, and author

Rudresh Mahanthappa - Anthony H.P. Lee ‘79 Director of Jazz in conversation with Dr. Jesica Seddon. 

Krishna and Rudresh speak about the importance of music for building and exploring individual identities as well as broader social movements or collective change. They reflect on their personal experiences and choices as artists in engaging with different aspects of Indian culture and discuss some of the works that they are most proud of contributing to the world. The episode concludes with a discussion on improvisation as a way of navigating the quest to both find commonality and preserve valuable differences - and mention of some newer artists to watch. 

Dr. Jessica Seddon discusses with Professor Karthik Narasimhan, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Princeton University, and Dr. Manish Gupta, Director of Google Research India, how natural Language Processing (NLP), combined with advances in artificial intelligence (AI), has opened up new possibilities for human-computer interaction through speech. This episode discusses some of the emerging uses of the technology to expand access to the internet and the opportunities that it offers; support and sustain rarer languages; streamline healthcare and other social applications. The conversation touches on the risks involved with both deeper intelligence and new forms of interactions and discusses ways to shape the technologies’  trajectory. 

Dr. Jessica Seddon in conversation with Professor Atul Kohli, David K.E. Bruce Professor of International Affairs, Princeton University, and Shankkar Aiyar, Senior Fellow, IDFC Institute

discusses how COVID-19 has deeply affected India’s economy and society. While the per capita infection and mortality rates are low by global standards, the sheer numbers of those affected are significant. The lockdown and ongoing business disruptions have led to an economic contraction of nearly 24% in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021. Such changes inevitably also have political economy impacts - on voter expectations, on perceptions of successes and failures, and on openings for new leaders and forms of leadership to emerge. This episode discusses some of the ways in which COVID is and may shape India’s political economy. 

Dr. Jessica Seddon in conversation with:

• Professor Shivaji Sondhi, Professor of Physics, Princeton University
• Dr. Srinath Raghavan, Professor of International Relations and History, Ashoka University

Episode: Recent border skirmishes between India and China have brought the tensions between the world’s two most populous countries to the forefront of geopolitical conversations. This episode puts the events of mid-2020 from a historical perspective, discusses some of the underlying dynamics and drivers of India’s relationship with its neighbor to the east, and discusses potential trajectories for the relationship in the coming months.