Useful Knowledge

He’s best remembered as a Founding Father, but did you know that James Madison also helped establish meteorology in the United States? From his observations of weather conditions and crop cycles to notes on the wheat-destroying Hessian fly, Madison’s records speak to the potential and limits of collective scientific work. In this episode of Useful Knowledge, hear from geophysicist and current National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt about “citizen science” and modern scientific networks. 

This episode features Marcia McNutt (APS 2002) in discussion with Useful Knowledge host Patrick Spero at a public lecture held on April 30, 2026, at the American Philosophical Society. This episode is part of “America's Scientific Revolutionaries,” a two-year initiative generously supported by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.

Are monsters real? 

In this episode of Useful Knowledge, host Patrick Spero joins author, historian, and self-proclaimed “monster consultant” Surekha Davies to learn about what she calls “monsterification” in human societies. A central theme in her 2025 book Humans: A Monstrous History, Davies suggests that while monsters like giants, cyclopes, and werewolves are not real, humans have used monster stories since time immemorial to separate categories and establish norms—the ultimate “us versus them” tradition. Learn about monsters, humans, society, and science in this episode of Useful Knowledge. 

Indigenous traditions and communities have helped preserve the plants of the Americas since time immemorial. In this special episode of Useful Knowledge, part of the APS’s America’s Scientific Revolutionaries series, hear a conversation about some of the plants and gardens across the Americas , their traditional use, and how we can protect life on our planet through careful cultivation. 

This episode features Dr. Alejandro de Ávila (APS 2025), founding director of the Jardín Etnobiológico de Oaxaca, Dr. Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan, Tohono O’odham Studies Program instructor at Tohono O’odham Community College, Dr. Gary Nabhan, Research Social Scientist Emeritus at the University of Arizona, and host Patrick Spero at a public lecture reflecting on the legacies of 18th century naturalists John and William Bartram held in the spring of 2026 at Mission Garden in Tucson, Arizona. 

“That result is not curing a disease, it’s having an advance in our knowledge.” 

In this episode of Useful Knowledge, Martin Chalfie shares the story of how, by building on another scientist’s findings, they both went on to win the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “Useful knowledge” is at the core of the APS, but Chalfie argues for the utility of “useless knowledge.” Some discoveries push us forward by nature of their innovation, but others are useful in the way they inform and influence future scientists. Chalfie insists that scientists should always be concerned with the future implications of their work, and ought to focus on expanding our collective knowledge. In this way, knowledge that might initially seem “useless” is ultimately quite useful.

Keywords: fluorescence, bioluminescence, protein, bacteria, medicine, genetics, cell biology, chemistry, biochemistry, curiosity, discovery

In 1999, the American Philosophical Society held a symposium that gathered experts from around the world to make predictions about humanity in the 21st century. One of those experts, demographer and statistician Joel Cohen, met with host Patrick Spero to discuss this millennium’s trends and if we got them right in 1999. In this episode of Useful Knowledge, Cohen reviews his 1999 predictions on topics like population growth, economic equality, immigration, family dynamics, and more to share the outcomes, for better or worse, making recommendations for the coming decades. 

Dr. Emily Sperou is an ecobiologist and researcher who spent her doctoral studies and the first years of her postdoctoral career studying one of the world’s most elusive apex predators: the leopard seal. She and her colleagues take arduous boat trips through Antarctica, searching for rare animals and studying their diets, reproduction, and their survival amid climate change, melting polar ice, and changing sea levels. Sperou’s work helps inform policymakers and teach conservation groups about how to protect leopard seals and what their livelihood and survival means for the vast polar food web beneath them.

David Tatel grew up believing in the power of law and science to make life better for everyone. He began doing that work himself, launching a decades-long career as a civil rights lawyer and later, as a judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He fought and decided cases on various topics, notably education, voting rights, environmental law, and disability protections. Along the way, disability took on a personal meaning in his life as he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that began to take away his vision. For much of his decades-long career as a lawyer and judge, he hid his failing vision.

Writing his memoir, Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice, gave Judge Tatel the time and space to reflect back on his 50 years in law and justice, and helped him rethink his relationship to his blindness. The book, along with his trusty guide dog, Vixen, helped him realize that his blindness is an essential part of his life and that "acknowledgement is better for everybody.”

In this episode of Useful Knowledge, Judge Tatel joins host Patrick Spero to reflect on his philosophy of judicial restraint, his concerns about the future of American law, and becoming the role model he never had. 

Before becoming a respected biochemist, Michael Marletta was a child watching Sputnik crossing over Rochester, New York, imagining what it might be like to be a scientist one day. He was his mother’s helper in the kitchen, wondering how spices got their flavor and how they changed when mixed together and heated. He admired the periodic table and the unbelievable truth that those simple elements make up all of life on Earth. As he explored the field of chemistry, he realized the Earth itself is the best biochemist of all–putting all the elements together to shape life as we know it. 

In this episode of Useful Knowledge, host Patrick Spero is joined by biochemist Michael Marletta (APS 2016) to discuss how he found his niche in biochemistry and the future of the field for budding scientists. They consider the fascinating history of biochemistry from its earliest days when scientists were encouraged to smell and even taste their creations, and the role of serendipity in scientific discovery. And, Marletta shares one of the foundational chemicals in his work–nitric oxide, which has widespread effects throughout the human body.

Distant, freezing, barren–it may seem that the icy regions of the Arctic and Antarctica have nothing to do with life in warmer homes. In this episode of Useful Knowledge, Neil Shubin, paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and APS Member, joins host Patrick Spero to explain how much these regions can tell us about the history and future of life on our planet and beyond.

Shubin’s work has allowed him to crack open 380-million-year old rocks, uncovering histories of the times when the polar regions were tropical, meteorites and rocks from the Moon and Mars, and creatures that have evolved to survive in near-impossible conditions. What do scientists make of the freshwater lake hidden under Antarctica? Can polar ice release viruses onto our populace? What are the consequences of melting polar ice? In this episode, learn about these and other incredible findings. 

Want to learn more? Look to Shubin’s 2025 book Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future.

Psychologist, author, and APS Member Daniel Gilbert considers the human imagination one of our greatest evolutionary gifts. In this episode of Useful Knowledge, Gilbert joins host Patrick Spero to discuss how humans imagine new possibilities and the subjective way we think about the future and the past. Inspired by the United States’ upcoming 250th birthday, Gilbert and Spero discuss what America’s Founders meant by the “Pursuit of Happiness” and what it might mean for Americans today.