The Future of Everything

Psychologist Russ Poldrack is a mind reader of sorts, but not in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, he makes movies of blood flow in the brain using functional MRI to draw insights into the function of specific regions of the brain to decipher how they control behavior. In one example, Poldrack has shown how people with obsessive-compulsive disorder have enhanced “salience networks” that turn on when surprising things happen. This finding could have “very profound” outcomes in diagnosis and treatment, Poldrack tells host Russ Altman in this wide-ranging exploration of the implications and the ethics of functional neuroimaging on Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Russ Altman introduces guest Russ Poldrack, a professor of psychology and of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University.

(00:03:15) Path into Neuroimaging

How Poldrack moved from cognitive psychology into functional MRI research.

(00:04:18) Functional MRI

How MRI can be used to track brain activity.

(00:06:59) Mapping Brain Activity

How tasks and behaviors are linked to patterns of brain activation.

(00:08:02) Resting Functional MRI

How resting scans revealed large-scale brain networks.

(00:09:00) Brain Networks and Behavior

How the brain controls stopping, switching, and habits.

(00:10:34) Layers of Brain Organization

Why neuroimaging studies the brain across multiple scales.

(00:13:04) Individual Brain Differences

How shared brain networks vary across individuals.

(00:13:34) Scanning Himself

Why Poldrack repeatedly scanned his own brain.

(00:15:47) Mapping One Brain Deeply

How repeated scans revealed reliable individual brain patterns.

(00:18:59) Neuroimaging and Mental Health

How brain network differences may relate to depression and OCD.

(00:21:42) Reproducibility in Brain Imaging

How larger and deeper data sets improve reliability.

(00:24:51) Analytic Variability

Why the same data can produce different conclusions.

(00:26:39) Multiverse Analysis

How testing many analyses helps identify stable findings.

(00:27:55) Open Science

How data sharing and standards improve transparency.

(00:30:29) Privacy and Brain Data

How researchers protect participants when sharing neuroimaging data.

(00:32:17) Future In a Minute

Rapid-fire Q&A: neuroimaging, reproducibility, and AI in science.

(00:33:22) Conclusion

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Prior to becoming an anesthesiologist, Alyssa Burgart trained in bioethics. She now counts herself among a growing number of certified clinical bioethicists who help doctors, nurses, patients, and their families handle ethically complex medical decisions at the bedside. Bioethicists are critical to care, Burgart argues, helping patients facing difficult choices to clarify personal values and weigh a complex array of risks and benefits, as well as emotions and familial, cultural, and religious norms. While much of her work is in pediatrics and maternal-fetal cases, she also studies how moral distress and moral injury impact clinicians, contributing to burnout among doctors and nurses. Having a strong ethical community brings resilience to these challenging environments, Burgart tells host Russ Altman in this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Russ Altman introduces guest Alyssa Burgart, a professor of anesthesiology and perioperative pain at Stanford University.

(00:03:16) Path into Bioethics & Anesthesiology

How Burgart became a bioethicist and then chose anesthesiology.

(00:05:18) What Bioethics Means

How bioethics helps connect medical decisions to values, risks, and benefits.

(00:07:03) Making Hard Decisions Manageable

How ethics consultation helps clinicians act with integrity.

(00:08:33) Ethics Consults

A detailed explanation of hospital ethics services 

(00:12:23) Pediatric Ethics

Examples of Dr. Burgart’s work with children, families, and clinicians

(00:15:45) Culture, Faith, and Trust

Navigating cultural and religious differences as a bioethicist.

(00:17:57) Family Decision-Making

How ethics consultants help families and care teams honor a patient’s voice.

(00:21:55) Moral Injury

What is moral injury and how do clinicians specifically experience it?

(00:24:52) Institutional Betrayal

Why barriers like policies, laws, and denied approvals can create moral strain.

(00:26:37) Moral Distress

What is moral distress and how does it manifest itself in healthcare.

(00:28:28) Moral Residue

When clinicians experience repeated moral strain and cannot recover between incidents.

(00:29:33) Treating Moral Injury & Distress

Strategies for helping clinicians manage these parts of their work.

(00:33:54) Future In a Minute

Rapid-fire Q&A: clinical bioethics, human dignity, and moral resilience.

(00:36:15) Conclusion

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These days, AI is everywhere, and it’s increasingly hard to separate the gains from the slop. With that in mind, we're re-releasing my conversation with Stanford Law professor Daniel Ho on the future of AI and the law. When we look for applications where AI can deliver measurable benefit, the legal profession stands out, both for its potential gains in efficiency and equity, and for how much is at stake if we get it wrong. Dan's research — from using AI to identify racist property covenants buried in county deed records, to mapping obsolete regulations that waste thousands of hours of government time — shows what's possible when the technology is applied with rigor and purpose. If you’re curious about how AI can serve both justice and good governance, this one is well worth another listen.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Russ Altman introduces guest Dan Ho, a professor of law, political science, and computer science at Stanford University.

(00:02:19) Path into Legal AI

How Ho’s background shaped his interest in law, and technology.

(00:03:35) What Lawyers Do

What makes law a complex domain for AI.

(00:05:28) Legal Hallucinations

When AI  performs well and when it fails. 

(00:07:52) Searching Legal Records in California

How AI can help identify outdated, harmful, or legally important material.

(00:10:28) Scaling Redaction

How a model accelerated a process that overwhelmed county recorder offices.

(00:13:04) Legal Reform at Scale

How AI has supported legal reform by scanning massive bodies of law.

(00:15:02) STARA & The City of San Francisco

How AI was used to go through San Francisco’s code and clean up reporting.

(00:20:53) Outdated Obligations

How “regulatory sludge” takes the time & resources of the public service

(00:25:02) Open vs. Closed AI

The differences and associated risks of the different AI systems.

(00:30:58) Legal Chatbots

Why legal chatbots are promising but risky.

(00:33:42) Conclusion

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Dr. Karen Adams, obstetrician/gynecologist and Farwell Family Director of the Stanford Program in Menopause and Healthy Aging, studies menopause and, perhaps more importantly, perimenopause – the critical years preceding it. During this time, hormone-related symptoms like mood instability, sleep disruption, hot flashes, and joint pain can be severe even though periods continue. Adams explains that perimenopausal symptoms are often misdiagnosed and improperly treated. She says hormonal therapies are safe and effective in perimenopause and menopause, and can even have heart and bone benefits. “Menopause is inevitable, but suffering is not,” Adams tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Russ Altman introduces guest Karen Adams, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University.

(00:02:11) Path into Menopause Medicine

How Adams built one of the first clinical programs focused on women over 40.

(00:04:19) Menopause and Perimenopause

What menopause is and how the hormonal transition often begins years earlier.

(00:06:19) Beyond Hot Flashes

The wide range of symptoms that can appear during perimenopause.

(00:11:09) Pregnancy Risk During Perimenopause

Why contraception can still matter until a full year without a period.

(00:11:11) Unpredictable Symptoms

Why perimenopausal symptoms can be harder to recognize than PMS.

(00:13:37) Hormone Therapy

How treatment differs during perimenopause and after menopause.

(00:22:57) The Women’s Health Initiative

What the landmark hormone therapy study showed.

(00:27:53) Sexual Health and Vaginal Estrogen

Why local estrogen can safely treat genitourinary symptoms for many women.

(00:30:36) Future In a Minute

Rapid-fire Q&A: menopause care, women’s health, and better clinical support

(00:32:58) Conclusion

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Biochemist Suzanne Pfeffer is an expert on the molecular roots of Parkinson’s disease. Her work focuses on mutated proteins linked to Parkinson’s risk. She’s discovered, for instance, that drugs inhibiting one of the proteins can help neurons regrow primary cilia and stave off cell death, reversing disease progression. Since similar drugs are in clinical trials, her findings bring great hope for people with a subtype of Parkinson’s and hopefully can be linked to earlier detection through warning signs like REM sleep disruptions and loss of smell. “This is precision medicine,” Pfeffer tells host Russ Altman of the future of Parkinson’s disease on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Russ Altman introduces guest Suzanne Pfeffer, a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University.

(00:03:25) Path into Parkinson’s Research

How Pfeffer’s protein work led to a life-changing work on Parkinson’s disease.

(00:05:28) Parkinson’s Primer

The various causes and the effects of the disease on the brain and body.

(00:10:26) Lewy Bodies and Dementia

How Lewy bodies, synuclein, and dementia relate to Parkinson’s disease.

(00:11:56) Molecular Trafficking

Pfeffer breaks down the effects of LRRK2 and GBA mutations in the brain.

(00:16:10) Early Disease Changes

Some of the early changes in the body and how they show up as symptomatically.

(00:20:04) Current Treatments

The limitations of symptom-focused treatments.

(00:21:46) Treating Earlier

Opportunities for slowing or reversing disease progression when detected earlier.

(00:22:32) Targeting LRRK2

Current research on disease treatment & trial challenges.

(00:27:33) The Value of Basic Science

Why curiosity-driven research can unexpectedly lead to disease breakthroughs.

(00:29:33) Future In a Minute

Rapid-fire Q&A: biomarkers, brain donation, and better Parkinson’s treatments.

(00:31:52) Conclusion

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Law professor Julian Nyarko has drawn attention for his studies using large language models to investigate and improve legal education and explore AI’s biases. He hopes AI can become a reliable, always-on legal learning and assistance tool to lower costs and expand access to legal services. In one recent study, he asked a group of law professors to evaluate written answers to student questions. Three-quarters of the time, the professors preferred AI-generated answers to those of their human colleagues. “AI is good at law,” Nyarko says, the challenge now is to use it most effectively, he tells host Russ Altman in this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Russ Altman introduces guest Julian Nyarko, a professor of law at Stanford University.

(00:02:31) Path into AI and Law

How Nyarko’s early work led him to legal AI.

(00:05:03) Law, Economics, and Computation

How Nyarko’s training, methods, and self-taught coding shaped his research.

(00:07:23) Building the LIFT Lab

Why a law professor started a lab.

(00:09:06) Evaluating Legal AI

How AI raises fundamental questions about what counts as good lawyering.

(00:10:22) Improving Legal Services

Using AI to work faster, reduce errors, and make informed decisions.

(00:10:57) Rethinking Legal Education

How AI may change the way future lawyers learn 

(00:11:51) AI in Office Hours

How AI answers law students’ questions compared with human professors.

(00:15:18) Surprising Results

Why AI answers were often preferred 

(00:16:16) What the Study Shows

The findings support AI tutoring, but don’t prove AI improves learning.

(00:18:48) Limits of One-Shot Answers

Why real teaching often depends on dialogue, clarification, and productive struggle.

(00:20:59) AI for Social Science

How AI can become both an object of study and a tool.

(00:22:43) Research Agents

Using AI to test claims and make previously impossible research scalable.

(00:24:51) Agentic AI in the Lab

How Socratic dialogue with AI can sharpen research ideas.

(00:26:07) Fairness and Bias

How computational tools can be audited for bias and used to audit decision-making.

(00:27:29) Discrimination in Models

Exploring bias and how it can be reduced.

(00:30:16) Disparate Impact

How policies and systems disadvantage groups even without explicit intent.

(00:32:53) From Evidence to Policy

How Nyarko’s lab works with stakeholders to surface disparities.

(00:34:49) Future In a Minute

Rapid-fire Q&A: justice, talent, and the future of legal AI.

(00:36:57) Conclusion

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In the western United States and Canada, this time of year is the beginning of peak wildfire season, a reality that's become impossible to ignore. In light of this, we're re-releasing my conversation with energy and climate policy expert Michael Wara on the future of wildfire management. Michael walks us through how we got here, why fires are burning bigger and more frequently, and what a smarter, more proactive approach to managing our landscapes might look like. Whether you're in a fire-prone region or simply paying attention to the changing climate around you, this one is well worth another listen.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Russ Altman introduces guest Michael Wara, a wildfire expert and professor of law at Stanford University.

(00:02:05) Journey to Wildfire Research

How Michael’s clean energy work led to wildfire research.

(00:03:36) Communities at the Frontlines

The community-level challenges and responsibilities in fire prevention.

(00:05:53) Shifting Community Perspectives

How awareness is rising but state efforts remain misaligned.

(00:08:17) Legacy Homes, Modern Risk

Why older homes pose a major risk and retrofitting is crucial.

(00:09:55) Utility-Led Safety Limitations

The significant but insufficient progress utilities have made.

(00:13:23) Targeting High-Risk Areas

How utilities now prioritize high-risk areas for safety upgrades.

(00:14:30) Insurance Industry Realities

Why insurers can't price risk without crashing markets.

(00:17:19) Urban Wildfires

How today's major fires in suburbs are mostly fueled by homes.

(00:22:12) The Climate Change Multiplier

The impact of atmospheric dryness and fuel moisture on fire risk.

(00:24:45) New Fire Regulations

Recent mandates that have been implemented to decrease fire risk.

(00:28:17) Rethinking Wildfire Communication

Why better messaging is key to changing homeowner behavior.

(00:31:52) Conclusion

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“Stories … are powerful tools that can help us make sense of our lives,” says physician-scientist Maya Adam. She now combines visual storytelling and health education to create animations that go beyond the barriers of language and culture to convey important health messages. The subject matter ranges from vaccine acceptance and addiction to mental health and nutrition. These emotionally engaging narratives – often without a single spoken word – are more effective than traditional pamphlets and lectures, Adam says. Visual stories have the potential to achieve “near-universal understanding” that can support better health outcomes, she tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Russ Altman introduces guest Maya Adam, a professor of pediatrics and infectious disease from Stanford University.

(00:03:43) From Ballet to Medicine

How Adam’s background shaped her approach to health education.

(00:05:02) Why Stories Work

Why lived experience makes evidence-based health recommendations more meaningful.

(00:06:17) The Story Creation Process

Adam’s techniques for creating effective scalable health stories on any topic

(00:09:20) Real World Stories

Adam shares some particularly challenging topics the team has created stories for

(00:11:10) Global Accessibility

Designing stories and characters that can resonate across cultures and contexts.

(00:12:38) Measuring Impact

Using technology to run trials to test and measure impact

(00:15:23) Iterating the Message

Adapting and changing approaches to create the most effective message

(00:17:53) AI and Storytelling

How AI is beginning to affect health communication and creative production.

(00:19:45) Testing Human vs. AI Art

A trial comparing responses to human-created and AI-generated health storytelling.

(00:25:42) Human-in-the-Loop AI

How AI may best support artists and clinicians by reducing burden rather than replacing

(00:27:43) Future In a Minute

Rapid-fire Q&A: stories, collaboration, media, and the future of health communication.

(00:29:44) Conclusion

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The World Cup is here, and while we watch some of the world's greatest athletes competing on a global stage, it's fascinating to consider what effect this intense activity may have on the human body. With that in mind, we're re-releasing our conversation with Stanford biochemist Jonathan Long on the future of exercise. Jonathan studies the chemistry of what happens inside your body when you move, and his findings are pointing toward some genuinely surprising possibilities — including treatments for obesity, diabetes, and even, someday, an exercise pill. If the athleticism on the pitch has you feeling inspired, this one is well worth another listen.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

Russ Altman introduces guest Jonathan Long, a professor of pathology from Stanford University.

(00:02:02) Effective Weight Loss Drugs

The history and development of GLP-1 receptor agonists.

(00:04:04) Understanding Metabolism and Exercise

Why Long’s lab starts with molecules to understand metabolism and physical activity.

(00:05:10) Animal Models in Exercise Studies

The use of animal models in exercise studies and the discovery of Lac-Phe.

(00:06:47) Psychological Preparation for Exercise

The psychological aspects of exercise and the involvement of endocannabinoids in exercise motivation.

(00:09:00) Lac-Phe's Role and Mechanism

The role of Lac-Phe and its production in the gut.

(00:12:08) Differences in Exercise Response

Differences in exercise response between trained athletes and untrained individuals.

(00:12:57) Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases

The relationship between diabetes, exercise, and metabolic diseases.

(00:15:01) Lac-Phe as a Potential Therapeutic

The potential of Lac-Phe as a weight loss drug, and parallels to GLP-1 drug development.

(00:16:21) Importance of How Weight is Lost

Whether the method of weight loss matters, and the importance of preserving lean muscle mass.

(00:18:37) Exercise as Medicine

The concept of exercise as medicine, and defining physical activity at the same resolution as modern medicines.

(00:22:11) Metformin and Exercise Pathways

The unexpected connection between metformin and the Lac-Phe pathway.

(00:24:01) Prospects of an Exercise Pill

The future of an exercise pill, and the challenges associated with its development.

(00:27:05) Conclusion

Final thoughts on the future of exercise.

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Professor of ophthalmology Daniel Palanker is a physicist who has combined his skills in optics and electronics to create PRIMA – the Photovoltaic Retinal Implant. Inserted beneath the retina, it restores vision to patients blinded by retinal degeneration, allowing them to read and write – and with the next-generation software, to recognize faces. PRIMA’s photovoltaic pixels act like tiny solar panels, converting light into electricity to stimulate the remaining retinal neurons. Better yet, the growing field of brain-computer interfaces may have implications beyond ophthalmology. “Unlike medicine, where the road ends with curing a disease or restoring lost function, the prospects for brain-machine interfaces may be infinite,” Palanker tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:03:17) Path into Ophthalmology

(00:04:33) How Vision Works

(00:08:50) Retinal Degeneration

(00:13:18) The PRIMA Implant

(00:15:05) Augmented Reality Glasses

(00:17:42) From Reading to Face Recognition

(00:20:18) Implanting the Device

(00:21:45) Replaceable Vision Technology

(00:22:28) Limits of Resolution

(00:24:00) Moving to 3D Electrodes

(00:26:28) Clinical Path Forward

(00:28:10) Safety and Real-World Use

(00:30:11) Future In a Minute

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