MIT Open Aggregated Podcast Feed

MIT Open Aggregated Podcast Feed

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MIT Open Aggregated Podcast Feed episodes

  • The Latest Technology in Freight Transportation with Samsara

    Freight companies face increasing pressure to adopt AI, but which technology is actually working on the road? This episode examines critical findings from ground-level freight operations, revealing why Excel remains the dominant tool despite digital transformation efforts, and why data quality, not AI sophistication, remains the biggest bottleneck constraining freight efficiency. Joining tech journalist Jason Del Rey are Dr. Angi Acocella, Research Scientist in the FreightLab at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, and David Gal, Vice President of Product and Engineering for Connected Equipment at Samsara, on a panel held at Samsara Beyond 2026 in Las Vegas.

    The conversation explores practical solutions shaping the freight industry today, including Bluetooth-enabled tracking labels for high-value shipments and how AI-powered geofencing is improving driver safety without replacing human oversight. From dynamic pricing mechanisms to how forward-thinking carriers are using AI agents to augment driver performance, this episode reveals what freight leaders should actually be investing in and where to be cautious.

    30 min
  • Creating Shared Prosperity With AI: Stanford Digital Economy Lab’s Erik Brynjolfsson
    Erik Brynjolfsson has a challenge for anyone worried about artificial
    intelligence: Stop asking what AI will do to us, and start asking what
    we will do with AI.
    In this episode, the Stanford University economist explains why technology isn’t the biggest barrier to progress — people, organizations, and institutions are. Drawing on new research into AI’s impact on jobs, productivity, and economic growth, he argues that the future isn’t predetermined: It will be shaped by the choices we make today. This is a timely conversation about human agency, shared prosperity, and why the most important AI breakthroughs may have less to do with technology than with how we use it. Read the episode transcript here.
    Guest bio: Erik Brynjolfsson is the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, and
    director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. He is also the Ralph
    Landau Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy
    Research, professor by courtesy at the Stanford Graduate School of
    Business and Stanford Department of Economics, and a research associate
    at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
    A best-selling author, Brynjolfsson focuses his research on examining the effects of information technologies on business strategy, productivity and performance, digital commerce, and intangible assets.
    Me, Myself, and AI is a podcast produced by MIT Sloan Management Review and hosted by Sam Ransbotham. It is engineered by David Lishansky and produced by Allison Ryder.
    We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.
    36 min
  • Stop and Go: Innovation in the face of Inherited Infrastructure - Urban Mobility with Chris Zegras

    Most of us experience traffic as a frustration and delay, but there is a deeper system at work. We speak with Chris Zegras to better understand how mobility shapes our neighborhoods and daily routines. Prof Zegras’s research spans inter-related areas critical to tackling urban mobility challenges: human behavior, digital transformation, and strategic planning techniques and technologies. He shares how traffic emerges, what our infrastructure is built for, how communities attempt to change and manage it, and what the future of urban mobility might look like.

    Learn more: learn.mit.edu

    Watch for Free on MIT Learn: https://learn.mit.edu/video/117034/

    Chris Zegras: https://dusp.mit.edu/people/chris-zegras

    45 min
  • Khiara Bridges, "Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans" (MIT Press, 2026)
    An unsettling exploration of the persistence of racism in reproductive healthcare in the US—and why even affluent Black women are imperiled by substandard care.From a leading expert on race, class, maternal health, and reproductive rights.Racism in maternal healthcare is not reserved for the poor. An unsparing picture of inequities in prenatal care and childbirth in the United States, Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans (MIT Press, 2026) reveals that not only are black people three to four times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause, but racial disparities in maternal mortality persist across income levels. That is, wealthier black people are much more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or the postpartum period than their white counterparts. Focusing on a San Francisco obstetrics clinic that caters to the affluent, Khiara Bridges looks at the choices around prenatal care and childbirth that class-privileged, pregnant black people are making in order to survive what has been called the “black maternal health crisis.”Bridges, whose previous work exposed how race and racism are embedded in maternal healthcare for the poor, draws on two years of participant-observation to show how wealthier black people try to leverage their class privilege to avoid some of the negative effects of their blackness—only to discover that in a country that has never reckoned with its horrific racial past, there is no escaping racism’s reach. Throughout the book, engaging, heartbreaking, infuriating stories of women’s experiences with pregnancy and prenatal care illustrate how race and racism matter regardless of wealth or status.
    48 min
  • Fenwick McKelvey, "SimPolitics: America’s Quest to Solve Politics with Computers" (MIT Press, 2026)
    This book is available open access.
    For
    more than six decades, the public has been promised that computers will
    revolutionize politics, both nationally and internationally. In SimPolitics: America’s Quest to Solve Politics with Computers
    (MIT Press, 2026), Dr. Fenwick McKelvey traces the entwined history of
    politics and computers from the 1960s to the late 1980s. He shows how
    programmers, consultants, academics, political scientists, and peace
    activists all worked—sometimes in tandem, sometimes not—to build
    simulations to win campaigns, predict coups, forecast the future, and render politics as legible as a spreadsheet.
    Drawing
    on novel archival and historical research, Dr. McKelvey recounts the
    history of efforts to simulate politics by building models of elections,
    voters, and international relations. Comparing attempts in the United
    States to simulate domestic electoral politics and international
    affairs, he reveals the unexamined connections and conflicts between the
    two projects. His book provides a helpful guide to taking stock of
    exaggerated claims that AI and technology will fix politics, while
    presenting the long history of such promised technological fixes.
    This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
    focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
    negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
    analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
    Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 
    52 min
  • Mind and Hand: A Decade of Data Monetization Research
    Nick van der Meulen reads MIT CISR's July 2026 research briefing, which he co-authored with Barb Wixom, Cynthia Beath, and the MIT CISR Data Research Advisory Board. See the text version and related content at https://cisr.mit.edu/publication/2026_0701_DataMonetization_VanderMeulenWixomBeathDataBoard.
    Abstract: Over a decade of collaboration between MIT CISR researchers and the MIT CISR Data Research Advisory Board has produced a research model that explains how organizations translate data assets into financial performance. The model traces a causal chain from core data capabilities through liquid data assets, organizational data democracy, and effective monetization initiatives to measurable business outcomes. Data Board leaders bring this model to life through three principles: (1) managing data assets as products with dedicated owners and lifecycles, (2) mobilizing data monetization across the organization, and (3) systematically realizing value through disciplined measurement and income statement accountability. Organizations embracing these principles unlock competitive advantage and maximize their data investment returns.
    15 min
  • Soraya Murray, "Technothriller: Film and the American Imagination" (MIT Press, 2026)
    Technothriller: Film and the American Imagination
    (MIT Press, 2026) is the first dedicated examination of popular movies
    classified as “thrillers” that channel societal anxiety or dread about
    advanced technologies like supercomputers, robotics, AI, biotech,
    military weaponry, and surveillance culture. Technothriller is
    about the changing imagination of technology within an American context
    and its role in engineering some of the most profound ideologies of
    modern life.
    Soraya Murray
    is a Professor in the Film and Digital Media Department at the
    University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work explores the visual
    culture of innovation, advanced computation, and its imaginaries as
    imaged in popular American films, for which technology assumes a central
    role. Murray’s first book, On Video Games: The Visual Politics of Race, Gender and Space (I.B. Tauris, 2018, paperback 2021), examines popular video games like Assassin’s Creed, Spec Ops: The Line, Metal Gear Solid, and Grand Theft Auto as visual culture. She currently serves as Provost of Porter College, UCSC.
    1 hr 4 min
  • Shaping Neighborhoods with Jeff Levine

    Jeff Levine, FAICP and Dr. Daniel Braconnier discuss the importance of zoning in shaping neighborhoods and the role of planners in influencing land use. The conversation explores how zoning affects daily life, community feelings, and the environment, emphasizing the need for thoughtful planning. Jeff Levine highlights the impact of zoning on things like access to essential services, the presence of community spaces, and the overall quality of life. This episode also touches on the responsibilities of planners and the importance of considering residents' experiences when making zoning decisions. Why THIS Matters is an MIT Learn Podcast, continue to learn more at: https://learn.mit.edu/

    0 min
  • Internet Pioneer David Clark’s Lessons for the AI Age
    Long before smartphones, social media, or ChatGPT, researchers at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) helped lay the groundwork for the modern internet. In this episode of Building 32, MIT CSAIL senior research scientist, internet pioneer and former Chief Protocol Architect David Clark reflects on those early days and explains how a network designed to connect computers became a force that reshaped society.
    More than fifty years later, Clark is applying those same instincts to Artificial Intelligence. He argues that the biggest challenges aren't about algorithms—they're about power, incentives, and human behavior.
    Episodes, listener discounts, meet the host, and more can be found here: csail.mit.edu/podcast
    Connect with CSAIL Alliances:
    On our site: cap.csail.mit.edu/about-us/meet-our-team
    On LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mit-csail
    #MIT #CSAIL #Building32 #ArtificialIntelligence #InternetHistory #TechInnovation #FutureOfAI #Podcast
    33 min

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