Shaping Science with Nick Dirks

Dr. Seven Rasmussen is an astrobiologist, author, educator, and science communicator whose work explores one of humanity’s oldest questions: are we alone in the universe? Dr. Rasmussen studies how planets form, evolve, and potentially support life, while also bringing these ideas to wider audiences through her writing. Rasmussen’s recent book, ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Starships,’ uses the famous Drake Equation as a starting point for exploring the odds of intelligent life beyond Earth.

Cloudy with a Chance of Starships: How the Drake Equation Reveals the Odds of Life in the Cosmos was published in 2026 by Princeton University Press

This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons.

00:00 Intro

01:53 How Did You Become Interested in Astrobiology?

08:02 From Active Galactic Nuclei to Nuclear Astrophysics to Exoplanets

11:10 Exploring Science Fiction Writing

14:56 Writing about Science for a General Readership

18:03 What is the Drake Equation?

19:05 The Principle Issues in Cosmological Thinking

23:07 What Habitability in the Cosmos Means

29:10 The One Place on Earth that Doesn’t Have Life

33:08 Understanding Exoplanets

35:57 Finding Microbial Life Elsewhere in the Solar System

38:29 How to Become an Astrobiologist

43:34 The Need for Effective Science Communicators

Josh Lerner, a leading expert on venture capital, private equity, and innovation policy, is an economist and the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School. Over the past three decades, his research has shaped how governments, investors, and entrepreneurs understand the financing of innovation. Prof. Lerner’s work explores when markets succeed, when public policy fails, and what it really takes to build sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems. His newest book ‘Rethinking Innovation’ with Jean Tirole, published earlier this year by Princeton University Press, explores how corporations have increasingly embraced the sharing of knowledge as a competitive strategy. He was also the recipient of the Academy’s inaugural Constellation Award earlier this year.

This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons.

00:00 Intro

02:00 The Innovation Economy and Innovation Policy

08:47 The Silicon Valley: Venture Capital, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

13:55 How Does Venture Capital Work?

20:05 Challenges Around the Innovation Economy/Ecosystem

24:53 The Global Environment Around Successful Innovation Zones

33:58 Developing Funding Mechanisms for Outside-the-Box Research

39:22 The Multi-Dimensional Role of Patents in Innovation

42:02 Regulating Innovation: Quantum Computing, AI, and Beyond

48:09 China’s Innovation Economy  

Hans Peter Brondmo is a technology entrepreneur, former Google Vice President, and a leading thinker on artificial intelligence, robotics, and the future of work. He has founded several startups and held positions at Nokia in Berlin, Apple in Tokyo, and at CERN in Geneva. At Google’s X — the “moonshot factory” — he founded and led the Everyday Robots project, an ambitious effort to build general-purpose robots capable of working alongside humans in everyday environments. Across a career spanning Silicon Valley, startups, and global tech leadership, Brondmo has consistently been at the forefront of emerging technologies — from early internet marketing to social networks and now embodied AI. 

This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons. 

00:00 Intro
02:21 “Nerd Credentials”
06:40 From Toy Trains and Ham Radio to Computers and Robots
11:12 Finding Success as an Entrepreneur
13:58 Building Robots for Google: “Breaking Glass, but Not Too Much”
17:18 Pre-LLMs: The Robotic Scene in 2016
23:30 The Theory of the Robot in 2019
30:57 Parallels Between LLMs and Robotics
36:30 The Current State of Robotics
44:45 Moving Toward an AI Society

Peter Agre, MD, is a physician, molecular biologist, and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (2003) whose discovery of aquaporin water-channel proteins transformed our understanding of how water moves through cell membranes. He is also a passionate advocate of global health, malaria research and holds the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship at Johns Hopkins University. He is also a strong believer in science diplomacy and the role of scientists in geopolitics as described in his book - Can Scientists Succeed Where Politicians Fail? - published in 2025 by Johns Hopkins University Press.

This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons.

00:00 Intro

04:56 The Significance of Discovering Aquaporins

10:52 Curiosity-Driven Science: When Research Interests Meet Serendipity

16:31 From Nobel Laureate to Malaria Researcher

25:24 Utilizing Ancient Chinese Remedies

32:15 Can Scientists Succeed Where Politicians Fail?

37:17 The Role of Healthcare in the Origins of the Cuban Revolution

41:29 The Current Climate for Science Diplomacy

Thomas Levenson is a historian of science and Professor of Science Writing at MIT. He has written several bestselling narrative histories covering topics from Isaac Newton’s unexpected career as a crime fighter to the 1720 South Sea Bubble, now recognized as one of the world's first financial crises. Levenson explores how scientific ideas emerge, collide with politics, and reshape society and the modern world. His work brings together science, history, and human drama, showing how discovery is never isolated from culture, power, and chance.

A Pox on Fools: The True Believers, Grifters, and Cynics Who Convinced Us to Reject Vaccines was published in 2026 by Penguin Random House.

This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons.

00:00 Intro

02:03 From East Asian Studies major to science writer

05:18 Climate Science in the 1980s

15:22 Measure for Measure: A Musical History of Science

22:35 A Hunt for an Imaginary Planet and an Imaginary Fortune

27:24 Einstein and Two World Wars

34:43 From Early 18th Century South Sea Explorations to 21st Century Advances in AI

36:34 Moments of Unreason, Folley, and Fraud in Science

47:08 Germ Theory, Public Health, Antibiotics, and Vaccines52:39 The Andrew Wakefield Paper: Fraudulent in Everyway

Emily Eakin, senior editor at The New York Times Book Review, whose pieces have also been published in The New Yorker, Vogue, The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and more. She recently published her first book, ‘The Frenchmen, or My Life in Theory,’ which tells the improbable story of the prominent French philosophers that had profound and lasting influence in the 1980s and ’90s. Their impact on American education and intellectual culture was immense, with some of their ideas tying into the cultural wars of present day.

‘The Frenchmen Or, My Life in Theory’ was published in 2026 by Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/317335/the-frenchmen-by-emily-eakin/

This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons: https://www.tata.com/business/tata-sons

00:00 Intro

05:50 The Personal and Intellectual History of Language

13:28 A More Scientific Way of Interpreting Meaning in Language

18:40 The Intellectual Embrace of Structuralism

24:40 The French Impact on American Higher Education

28:50 The Emergence of Poststructuralist Thought

32:56 The Role of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

37:00 The Specter of Jacques Derrida

43:35 The Role of Michel Foucault

Diana Reiss is a cognitive psychologist and one of the world’s leading researchers on animal cognition and consciousness. Best known for her groundbreaking work demonstrating mirror self-recognition in dolphins – a discovery that challenged long-standing assumptions about human cognitive uniqueness, Reiss has spent decades studying how dolphins and other animals think, communicate, and understand themselves, while also translating this science into advocacy for animal welfare and conservation. 

This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons. 

00:00 Intro 
01:38 From the Arts to the Sciences 
07:02 Working with Whales and Dolphins 
13:05 The Physiology, Neuroscience, and Consciousness of Dolphins  
17:26 The Mirror Test: Utilizing Set Design Skills 
26:10 Evolution and the Stages of Development 
30:41 Mirror Self-Recognition with Different Mammals 
37:17 How Animal Consciousness Relates to Human Consciousness  
42:58 Advocating for Better Treatment of Animals 

Andrea Wulf is an internationally bestselling historian and author whose work has reshaped how we understand the relationship between science, nature, and culture. Across her work, Wulf brings to life the intellectual networks and ideas that have shaped modern understandings of the natural world, from Enlightenment science to Romantic philosophy. Her latest book, ‘The Traveler,’ is a sweeping biography of George Forster, the visionary 18th-century naturalist and explorer, which chronicles his journey from a child prodigy sailing with Captain Cook to a radical voice advocating for universal human rights. Visit: penguinrandomhouse.com/books/768155/the-traveler-by-andrea-wulf/

This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons. For more info, visit: nyas.org/ideas-insights/podcasts/

00:00 Intro 
02:14 The Life of Alexander van Humboldt  
08:36 The Politics of Nature vs Climate 
11:31 Stanger Than Fiction: Creating a Compelling Narrative through Primary Source Materials 
15:15 From the World to the Self 
19:14 The Most Fascinating Man Most People Have (Probably) Never Heard Of  
25:20 Developing a Theory of the 18th Century World  
32:32 A Stunning and Correct Theory of Polynesian Migration 
40:28 Almost Lost to History 
44:06 A Tumultuous and Tragic Life that Ended Too Soon 

David Spergel is a theoretical astrophysicist and professor emeritus of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. A renowned cosmologist, he helped lead NASA's landmark Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission, which revolutionized our understanding of the universe, and later chaired NASA's independent study team on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. As president of the Simons Foundation, he carries forward the vision of its co-founders, Jim and Marilyn Simons, and advocates for the unique role philanthropy can play in advancing bold, long-term scientific research and discovery.

Learn more about the Simon's Foundation: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/

00:00 Intro

05:26 Dr. Spergel’s Path to Cosmology: From Theorist to Experimentalist

14:23 Developing Revolutionary Ideas: The Role of Failure in Science

17:45 Rethinking Incentives for High-Risk, High-Reward Science

23:51 Advantages and Challenges of Interdisciplinary Research

28:09 Determining Merit within the Research Funding Bureaucracy

36:57 Research on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena

43:16 The Phenomena of “Sprites”

49:56 Rebuilding Public Trust in Science

Webb Keane is the George Herbert Mead Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and a leading thinker on ethics, religion, and meaning in everyday life. His work explores how belief, morality, and material objects shape who we are and howmodern ideas of sincerity, freedom, and responsibility came to be. Through fieldwork in Indonesia and wide‑ranging theoretical writing, he brings weighty philosophical questions to the level of everyday practice. His latest book ‘Animals, Robots, Gods: Adventures in the Moral Imagination’explores non-human agency from animals to AI and automated beings.00:00 Intro 06:37 Why Indonesia for Fieldwork? 13:03 Understanding the Social Isolation of the American Individual 18:11 The Role of the Anthropologist in Artificial Intelligence Development 23:13 How Human Values, Morality, and Ethics Inform AI 29:46 What Does this New Power of the Machine Mean for What it Means to Be Human? 36:48 The Role of AI in Our Social Lives 46:34 Make AI Less Human-Like so It’s Not Mistaken for a Human