MIT Open Aggregated Podcast Feed

MIT Open Aggregated Podcast Feed

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MIT Open Aggregated Podcast Feed episodes

  • To the ice sheets with a polar scientist

    In our previous episode, we spoke with Dr. Sarah Das, a Scientist Emeritus at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, about how climate change is affecting the big polar ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. She’s been traveling to the poles for her research since the nineties, and this week, she’s taking us behind the scenes: into the world of glacier science, “boomerang flights,” and ice as far as the eye can see.

    A video version of this episode is available on our YouTube channel. For a deeper dive and additional resources, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/bonus-ice-sheets-polar-scientist.

    For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at [email protected].

    15 min
  • The Electrical Grid and Beyond with David Hsu

    Dr. Daniel Braconnier discusses with Dr. David Hsu about the importance of understanding the electrical grid and its role in the future of energy systems. It explores the complexity of the grid, its historical development, and the challenges and opportunities it presents. This Why THIS Matters episode highlights the inter-dependencies between different energy sources and the need for a coordinated approach to managing the grid. It also addresses common misconceptions about the grid, such as thinking it is a unitary object or separate from other systems. The episode concludes by emphasizing the significance of the grid in the context of climate change and the need for a comprehensive understanding of how the grid is built and how it can be changed to achieve future goals. Why THIS Matters is an MIT Learn Podcast, continue to learn more at: https://learn.mit.edu/

    47 min
  • Michael Brownstein et al., "Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change" (MIT Press, 2025)
    A novel and scientific approach to creating transformative social change—and the surprising ways that each of us can help make a real difference. Changing the world is difficult. One reason is that the most important problems, like climate change, racism, and poverty, are structural. They emerge from our collective practices: laws, economies, history, culture, norms, and built environments. The dilemma is that there is no way to make structural change without individual people making different—more structure-facing—decisions. In Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change (MIT Press, 2025), Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva, and Daniel Kelly show us how we can connect our personal choices to structural change and why individual choices matter, though not in the way people usually think. The authors paint a new picture of how social change happens, arguing that our most powerful personal choices are those that springboard us into working together with others—warehouse worker Chris Smalls’s unionization at Amazon is one powerful example. Taking inspiration from the writer Bill McKibben, they stress how one “important thing an individual can do is be somewhat less of an individual.” Organized into three main parts, the book first diagnoses the problem of “either/or” thinking about social change, which stems from the false choice of making better personal choices or changing the system. Then it offers a different way to think about social change, anchored in a new picture of human nature emerging across the social sciences. Finally, the authors explore ways of putting this picture into practice. Neither a how-to manual nor an activist’s guide, Somebody Should Do Something pairs stories with science (plus some jokes) to help readers recognize their own power, turning resignation about climate change and racial injustice into actions that transform the world.
    My guests today are Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva and Daniel Kelly. Michael is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at John Jay College and Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center, Cuny. Alex is Professor of Philosophy, Director of the California Center for Ethics and Policy, and Co-Director of the Digital Humanities Consortium at Cal Poly Pomona. Daniel Kelly is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Cognition, Agency, and Intelligence Center at Purdue University.
    1 hr 12 min
  • Office Hours: Is “the seal”...real?

    We’ve all been there. You’re having an adult beverage, and suddenly, you feel the urge to “go”... and after you go once, you're making repeated trips to the bathroom all night. This is the legendary concept of “Breaking the Seal.” But is it actually real? Is there a physical barrier inside us that, once broken, opens the floodgates? If not, what's actually happening behind the scenes? Dr. Jeffrey Held joins the pod to help us unravel the mysteries of our own plumbing. 

     Learn more about Jeffrey Held, MD 

    10 min
  • Rahul Mukherjee, "Unlimited: Aspirational Politics and Mobile Media Distribution" (MIT Press, 2026)
    Around 2016, buoyed by so-called data kranti  ("data revolution"), an aspirational neo-middle class of users in India accessed internet for the first time on their mobile phones. Unlimited: Aspirational Politics and Mobile Media Distribution (MIT Press, 2026) tells the story of digital infrastructures that are being created by state-corporations for content and money to move and reach such users. It interrogates how their design impact the forms of inclusions and exclusions enacted as well as the horizon of social behaviors and expectations in "Digital India." The book contends that to
    understand the possibilities and limits of India's aspirational
    politics, media studies scholars should attend to infrastructures of
    aspiration: the distributional logistics of streaming content and mobile money are the infrastructural backbone that recalibrate thresholds of
    aspirational goals. 
    Digital content media distribution is also shaped by how user
    practices get entangled with particular affordances of platforms, and
    hence the need to study both participatory cultures of circulation and
    logistics
    of distribution together. Drawing on in-depth interviews, ethnographic
    fieldwork, critical discourse analysis and participant observation, the
    book traces the supply chains of content delivery networks enabling
    streaming video-on-demand services and informal ways of circulating "vernacular" music videos through memory cards. Unlimited does not restrict itself to formal media infrastructures, but also researches online phishing and lending scam assemblages to understand how such scams perform critical boundary work to reveal the cracks in and workings of financial distribution networks. This book offers a systematic examination of distribution considerations—including localization strategies—required for imagining mobile phone users across the varied regional geographies of "Digital India."
    Rahul Mukherjee is Associate Professor of TV & New Media and graduate
    chair in the Department of Cinema & Media Studies at University of
    Pennsylvania. His teaching and research focus on the logistical and environmental dimensions of digital infrastructures and platforms. Rahul is the author of the monograph Radiant Infrastructures, and his work has been published in Critical Inquiry, SM+S, New Media & Society, and Science, Technology & Human Values. He has co-edited a special issue on "Media Power in Digital Asia" for Media, Culture & Society journal.  
    Priyam Sinha is an Alexander Von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University in Berlin. Her research interests lie at the intersection of critical media industry studies, disability studies, gender studies, affect studies, production culture studies, and anthropology of the body, and her work has been published in the European Journal of Cultural Studies, Media, Culture and Society; Communication, Culture and Critique; South Asian Diaspora, among others. She is also a regular podcast host at the New Books Network and has been published in public writing forums like the Economic and Political Weekly, FemAsia, Asian Film Archive, among others. More information on her ongoing projects can be found on her website and you can follow her on X.
    58 min
  • Inside the Cell: Why Pathogens are the World’s Best Cell Biologists with Becky Lamason
    Description:

    Understanding how bacteria evade our immune systems and cause disease is vital for developing better treatments and diagnostics. In this MIT Learn Beyond Biology episode, MIT professor Becky Lamason shares her insights on bacterial pathogens, their interaction with human cells, and the future of infectious disease research. This discussion reveals not only the complexity of microbes but also how innovative science can uncover new paradigms in host-pathogen interactions. Stay to the end to learn more about Becky’s personal path to the lab.

    Resources:
    • MIT Learn online cell biology courses
    • Video of this episode
    • MIT Department of Biology Profile of Becky Lamason

    Key topics:
    • How bacterial pathogens break the rules of survival and adaptation
    • Examples of bacterial infections and the dangers they pose—Listeria, Rickettsia, Salmonella, Vibrio
    • The unique strategies bacteria use to invade and persist inside human cells
    • The difference between bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic pathogens
    • Antibiotic resistance: development, implications, and the importance of proper use
    • How bacterial size and shape compare to human cells
    • Mechanisms of bacterial entry into cells via force or protein tricks
    • The obligate dependence of certain bacteria like Rickettsia on living inside host cells
    • The tick transmission cycle and how bacteria jump from vectors into humans
    • Cell-to-cell spread of bacteria and the importance of intracellular movement
    • The role of modern tools—genetics, microscopy, genome editing—in understanding pathogen biology
    • Future directions: expanding research to environmental vectors, developing broad-spectrum diagnostics, and leveraging new technologies

    Timestamps:

    00:00 - The unpredictability of pathogens and their survival strategies

    00:24 - Introduction to Becky Lamason and the importance of bacterial pathogens

    01:08 - Common bacterial pathogens and infections in daily life

    01:33 - Food recalls and bacterial contamination in the environment

    02:13 - Focus on Listeria monocytogenes and clinical implications

    02:41 - Other bacteria like Rickettsia and their deadly potential

    03:15 - Symptoms of spotted fevers caused by Rickettsia

    03:20 - The range of bacterial disease symptoms and severity

    04:01 - Categorizing pathogens: bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites

    04:28 - Bacteria’s size relative to other microbes and complexity

    05:04 - The diversity within bacterial pathogens and their unique features

    05:20 - Treatment options for bacterial infections and antibiotic sensitivity

    05:48 - Antibiotic resistance: evolution, biology, and clinical impact

    06:26 - Practical advice: importance of completing antibiotic courses

    08:02 - The analogy of pathogens as cell biologists and their survival tactics

    08:41 - Bacteria’s ability to break rules of host cell biology

    11:25 - Comparing bacterial size to human cells; visualization of scale

    12:19 - How bacteria enter human cells through force or mimicry

    12:33 - The dependency of certain bacteria on living inside host cells

    15:28 - Transmission cycles involving ticks and environmental reservoirs

    17:28 - Mechanisms of bacterial cell spreading and invasion strategies

    19:00 - The concept of acute infection phases and bacterial proliferation

    20:14 - The ultimate goal of bacteria: replication and dissemination

    21:28 - Safety measures in the lab working with pathogenic bacteria

    23:33 - Connecting basic research to clinical applications and diagnostics

    25:09 - The power of microscopy and visual data in understanding infection

    27:38 - Memorable discoveries and unexpected breakthroughs in the lab

    29:28 - Future tech: genome editing, large-scale genetic analysis, and new directions

    31:33 - The significance of bacteria targeting host cell organelles like ER and nuclei

    33:01 - Becky’s journey, switching questions and embracing multidisciplinary work

    35:41 - Building community and embracing the unknown in scientific research

    37:25 - From high school curiosity to MIT professor: Becky’s personal story

    39:56 - Balancing real-world jobs and academic pursuits

    42:12 - The future of bacterial research: new tools and broader applications

    44:02 - Final thoughts and encouragement to explore and collaborate

    0 min
  • AI for Interoperability in Health Care: Philips’s Carla Goulart Peron
    On today's episode, Philips’s chief medical officer Carla Goulart Peron shares how artificial intelligence is reshaping health care — not by replacing clinicians but by expanding access, improving diagnostics, and freeing doctors to focus more time on patients. Drawing on her experience practicing medicine in Brazil’s strained public health system, she explains how technologies like AI-assisted imaging and remote collaboration can bridge critical gaps in care. Carla also explores the challenges of trust, bias, interoperability, and women’s health data in the next era of AI-enabled medicine. She offers a grounded, global perspective on how technology can make health care more human. Read the episode transcript here.
    Guest bio:
    Dr. Carla Goulart Peron is chief medical officer at Philips. A physician by training, she leads the global team shaping the health technology company’s medical strategy for achieving scientific excellence across medical affairs, clinical research, medical safety, and health economics. Before joining Philips, she was vice president and chief medical officer for surgical innovations and robotics at Medtronic.
    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.
    ME, MYSELF, AND AI® is a federally registered trademark of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.
    35 min
  • Polar ice in a warming world

    The frozen parts of our planet—from sprawling polar ice sheets and floating sea ice to mountain glaciers and frigid soils—face profound risks from climate change. Already, a warmer world has transformed these landscapes, with consequences that span the globe. Dr. Sarah Das, a Scientist Emeritus at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, joins to discuss her decades-long career studying the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and help us understand how changes to the polar regions affect people now and in the future.

    We thank WHOI for providing audio recorded during supraglacial lake research in Greenland. (Credit: Chris Linder, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).

    For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e8-polar-ice-warming-world.

    For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at [email protected].

    15 min
  • Systems Thinking with Bruce Cameron

    On today's episode, we're joined by Dr. Bruce Cameron. He's the director of the system architecture group, a senior lecturer, and the faculty director for MIT's Architecture and System Engineering Online Certificate Program.

    In this episode, we'll explore the world of systems thinking, what it really means to see the connections between events, why the decisions you make early in any complex system can determine everything that follows, and how organizations consistently undermine themselves by optimizing the wrong things. From NASA to Amazon to Meta, Bruce has seen systems succeed and fail at the highest levels, and he's here to share what he's learned, including some surprises along the way.

    Mentioned links:

    • Architecture and Systems Engineering: Models and Methods to Manage Complex Systems
    • MIT Learn

    45 min
  • Yosef Grodzinsky, "How Deeply Human Is Language?: Chomsky, the Brain, and the AI Fantasy" (MIT Press, 2026)
    How Deeply Human Is Language? Chomsky, the Brain, and the AI Fantasy (MIT Press, 2026) is Yosef Grodzinsky’s exploration of the criticality of the linguistic theories to the design of LLMs. The book dwells on the significance of the marriage between computational and theoretical fields, specifically “engineering and science” on the development of unique Language Learning Models. Yosef maintains that leveraging linguistic theories for the development of Gen AI chatbots and training of Language Learning Models will help the growing Gen-AI revolution. In the book, LLMs are evaluated from the neurolinguistic perspective, comparing how the human brain works with different LLMs’ reactions to prompts, highlighting how a collaboration between the core linguists and the experts in the technology-related fields could make a change.
    Yosef Grodzinzky’s positions in the book is grounded in contemporary linguistics, founded and inspired by Noam Chomsky, the father of the “mentalist” linguistic perspective to language acquisition. In the book, the author employs the historical approach to tell different significant stories to communicate multiple messages of success of interdisciplinary practices. While the main idea is to explore the centrality of linguistic science to other fields with specific emphasis on Engineering and sister’s technological fields, the book dwelled on specific pitfalls of the linguistics and way forward to promote novel interdisciplinary productions.
    Mariam Olugbodi is a university teacher and a writer, she is the author of the monograph titled: “Stylistic Features in the 2011 and 2012 Final Matches Commentaries in the UEFA Champions League”, published by Grin Verlag. Mariam’s greatest dream is seeing a world where knowledge is accessible to all. She does this through her volunteering roles on open knowledge platforms as a host and an editor. As part of her effort to maintain inclusion and diversity in knowledge transmission, she volunteers as a teacher in crises contexts. Learn more and connect with Mariam through her social links here. | LinkedIn| here. |ORCID| and here. |Meta|
    0 min

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Episodes from podcasts from around MIT