Stanford Radio

Pam Karlan, one of the nation’s leading experts on law and voting and the political process, discusses the new conservative-majority Supreme Court—and potential consequences of its blockbuster term, including the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on August 13, 2022.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman:

E192 | How to design algorithms with fairness in mind

Algorithms are behind many serious decisions in mortgages, medicine, and a range of other areas. A computer scientist explains how we can build notions of fairness into algorithms.

Algorithms inform the news you read, the TV shows you watch, and the advertisements that appear on your internet searches – and they also have a say in who gets a bank loan, what medical procedures are covered by insurance, and who gets selected for a job interview. As algorithms are used to make these decisions, how do we make sure they’re fair? And what does fairness even mean?

In this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything, computer science professor Omer Reingold explains how we can create definitions of fairness that can be incorporated into computer algorithms. Reingold and host, bioengineer Russ Altman, also discuss how flawed historic data may result in algorithms making unfair decisions and how a technique called multi-group fairness can improve health predictions for individuals. Listen and subscribe here.

While polls of Republican voters still show strong support for former president Trump, some of the most powerful testimony against him during the January 6 Congressional hearings have been by members of his administration and party. In this episode we hear from Stanford Law Professor Michael W. McConnell, a former judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit nominated by President George W. Bush, about a new report he co-authored, Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election, which examined every count of every case of election irregularities brought by Trump’s team in six battleground states—and concluded that “Donald Trump and his supporters had their day in court and failed to produce substantive evidence to make their case.”

Originally aired on SiriusXM on July 30, 2022.

Helping families with children on the autism spectrum.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on July 30, 2022.

What have we learned from the Congressional hearings into the January 6 storming of the Capitol and then-President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election? Join Stanford criminal law expert Professor Robert Weisberg for a discussion of the hearings—what we learned and who might face criminal charges.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on July 30, 2022.

Full title: ALAN CHIU, CEO, BOBA NETWORK & STANFORD ALUM: BLOCKCHAIN, CRYPTOCURRENCY, & WEB 3 DEMYSTIFIED.

Description: Making crypto accessible to all, best of Web 3.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on July 23, 2022.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman:

E186 | How cryptography and Web3 can fight misinformation and help restore trust in digital media

A group of researchers explore how the tools of cryptography can be used to verify the veracity of the images and videos you see online.

Many of the lies, distortions, and pieces of disinformation online are easy to spot. But as technology advances it will become harder to tell the difference between video and images that are true and accurate and those that are manipulated or outright made up. In this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything, Jonathan Dotan, of Stanford’s Starling Lab for Data Integrity, and host, bioengineer Russ Altman, discuss what researchers are doing to keep ahead of advances in deep fakes and other forms of manipulated media. Dotan explains how the lab is using cryptography and blockchain technologies to verify the veracity of images and videos, and how these tools are already being used to document war crimes in Syria and Ukraine, and to secure the testimonies of genocide survivors. Listen and subscribe here.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman:

E189 | How to make quieter airplanes

A Stanford professor explains how fluid mechanics can help decrease the sound generated by airplanes.

Since they were invented more than a century ago, airplanes have gone from carrying a single person to ferrying many hundreds of people and several tons of cargo. Despite the increase in size and capacity, commercial aircraft have actually become quieter over the past several decades, thanks to a few key design changes informed by fluid mechanics, a branch of physics that studies fluids in motion.

In this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything, Sanjiva Lele, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and of mechanical engineering, explains how adjustments in aircraft design, landing gear, and engines can have massive consequences for the field of aeroacoustics.

Lele joins host, bioengineer Russ Altman, to also discuss how high-fidelity simulations can be used to study and improve the fluid mechanical modeling of aircraft engines, as well as wind turbines. Listen and subscribe here.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman:

E188 | A cardiologist says embracing diversity will catalyze medical research

Diversity in medicine boosts innovation and has even improved physicians’ ability to prevent transplant rejection.

Data shows that greater gender diversity on company leadership groups leads to improved business outcomes, says Stanford cardiologist Hannah Valantine. Likewise, she says, in medical research, where diversity boosts the development of new technologies.

In this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything, Valantine, the former inaugural chief officer for scientific workforce diversity at the National Institutes of Health, as well as a senior investigator at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, discusses why increasing the diversity of researchers and study participants is vital to medical innovation. Valantine and host, bioengineer Russ Altman, then explore the barriers that keep new medical technologies, such as a blood test to detect signs of heart transplant rejection, from being used in hospitals. Listen and subscribe here.

Tara VanDerveer, head coach of the Stanford women’s basketball team (and all time winningest women’s bball coach) on the anniversary of Title IX and its impact on girls in sports.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on July 16, 2022.