The Transformative Ideas Podcast

The Transformative Ideas Podcast

By Manuel BrennerScienceNatural Sciences
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The Transformative Ideas Podcast episodes

  • #6: Gangsta Rap, Fart Jokes and Existentialism - The Power of Taboo Breaking with Sven Bloching

    In this episode, we are joined by Linguistics PhD candidate Sven Bloching from the University of Heidelberg.


    We talk about the psychological, philosophical and linguistic perspectives on taboos, how they relate to humor, why taboos and their respective breaking plays such a special role in our societies and subcultures, and how thinking about the importance of taboo breakings can help us understand dramatic misunderstandings within our societies.
    We discuss how changes in the role the work of art plays in our societies has re-defined some elements of taboo breakings, how we tend to confuse the signifier and the signified, how the euphemistic treadmill keeps on introducing new taboo words, and how taboo breaking in politics relates to populism.
    We chat about humor, the place of the jester and the carnival medieval societies and the connections to Marxism and class relationships.

    We end by discussing the role of humor from an existentialist perspective, linguistics and Noam Chomsky, and the overemphasis that is often put on the role language plays in constituting reality.


    The podcast is hosted by Manuel Brenner.


    1 hr 11 min
  • #5: Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience and Free Energy with Charel van Hoof

    In this episode, we are speaking with Charel van Hoof, former Senior Vice President and CIO at Philips and now PhD candidate in Artificial Intelligence & Robotics at the Delft Technical University, about the relationships between AI research and neuroscience.

    We talk about what intelligence is, getting into Karl Friston's free energy principle, discussing how it relates to brain function and how it could shape AI of the future. We delve into the connections between AI and robotics, spatial approaches to intelligence, and an evolutionary perspective on how our minds could have emerged.


    We close by chatting about the future of AI, the moral responsibilities of AI researchers, and advice for people wanting to get started with AI research.

    Charel's Kaggle notebooks that offer a great hands-on introduction to the free energy principle can be found: "https://www.kaggle.com/charel/learn-by-example-active-inference-in-the-brain-1)

    The podcast is hosted by Manuel Brenner.

    1 hr 7 min
  • #4: Data Science meets Philosophy: Exploring how Human Rights Should Shape Our Online Lives with Travis Greene

    In this episode, we are talking to Ph.D. candidate Travis Greene from the Institute of Service Science in Taipei, Taiwan, about the philosophical, ethical, and judicial implications of modern data science, machine learning algorithms, and recommender systems.

    We talk about the ethical responsibilities of individual data scientists, a wider perspective on the role of behavioral big data in our societies, and the moral dilemma associated with building potentially harmful algorithms.

    We discuss the difference between American and European approaches to data privacy and protection, the GDPR, the recent court rulings around Privacy Shield by the European Court of Justice, how we could shape online rights around ideas of building our own narrative online, how recommender systems of the future should take ideas around human well-being and flourishing into account, and how they are related to religions in giving us closure in complex information environments.

    We end the conversation by talking about how scientific work prospers from personal contact, conferences, and collaborations.

    The podcast is hosted by Manuel Brenner.

    1 hr 25 min
  • #3: From Turbulent Winds to Orbital Changes - Getting Climate Change Right with Beatrice Ellerhoff

    In this episode, we are joined by Beatrice Ellerhoff, a Ph.D. student in  climate physics at the Institute for Environmental Physics in  Heidelberg.

    We talk about her work in analyzing long term climate variations going thousands of years back, the different time scales involved in the climate, and why it is so important to understand them in order to predict future variance of the climate.
    We talk about Beatrice's book "Mit Quanten rechnen" about quantum computing that she recently released in collaboration with Springer, and her work with the science communication platform "Many-Body Physics“.
    We chat about why changing fields can be helpful and fun, how theoretical methods from completely different fields can resurface in current research, how jazz music relates to science (and also does not), and what the most interesting scientific question being pursued at the moment is.

    The podcast is hosted by Manuel Brenner.

    1 hr 1 min
  • #2: Genes, Legos, and Viruses with Niklas Freund

    For our second episode, we are joined by Cambridge-based biochemistry Ph.D. candidate Niklas Freund.

    We talk about the nuts and bolts of the genetic machinery at the heart of all living systems, about different layers of conceptualizing DNA, from the chemical to the biochemical to the biological, learn about the field of synthetic biology and the attempts to construct DNA with novel chemical ingredients like Xeno nucleic acids, and hear how researchers like Niklas are trying to teach polymerase to work for them based on fascinating, Nobel-prize winning lab techniques like directed evolution.

    We address the current COVID crisis, what role PCR tests play in it, how genetics could shape medicine of the future, and what there is to fear and look forward to. We close by talking about what makes science so great and what makes it so difficult, the passion and emotion that young scientists should bring to the game, and what important lessons can be learned along the way.

    1 hr 33 min
  • #1: Quantum Computing with Ella Crane and Alexander Schuckert

    In this episode, we are joined by Ella Crane and Alexander Schuckert, both of who are currently pursuing their PhDs in the fields of quantum computing and quantum simulation.


    We get into the basics of quantum computing, the differences between quantum computers, quantum simulators, and classical computers, the potentially most useful applications of quantum simulators such as high-temperature superconductors and quantum chemistry, open-source packages such as IBMs Qiskit, the interaction between industry and universities, the pursuit of what is most interesting vs. the pursuit of what is most useful, and the most fascinating open questions that science has to offer.

    The podcast is hosted by Manuel Brenner.

    1 hr 11 min

About The Transformative Ideas Podcast

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The Transformative Ideas Podcast (formerly the ACIT Science Podcast). This podcast is to provide a glimpse into the life of scientists: to learn about the ideas they are passionate about, to find out…