How Engineers Solve “Impossible” Problems | Dan Gelbart
How do engineers solve problems that seem to violate the laws of physics?In this episode, we speak with Dan Gelbart, a prolific inventor and precision engineer, about what it really means to work at t...
17 Feb 2h 3min
How Visual Experience Rewires the Brain | Mark Bear on Neuroplasticity
How does experience rewire the brain—and why is vision the ideal system for understanding neuroplasticity?In this episode, we speak with Mark Bear, MIT neuroscientist and a pioneer in the study of exp...
3 Feb 1h 55min
Snell's Law, Metasurfaces, and Metalenses | Federico Capasso
How can flat surfaces shape light as powerfully as bulky lenses?In this episode, we speak with Federico Capasso, Harvard physicist and pioneer of metasurfaces, metalenses, and nanophotonics. Capasso t...
20 Jan 2h 13min
Graphene, Nanotubes, and Quantum Hall Physics | Philip Kim
How do electrons behave when they’re confined to a single layer, and why do entirely new laws of physics emerge when dimensions shrink?Papers discussed in this episode:Experimental observation of the ...
6 Jan 2h 47min
Quantum Matter, Super-conductors, and Black Holes | Subir Sachdev on the SYK Model
What makes high-temperature superconductors and “strange metals” some of the most perplexing systems in modern physics?In this episode, we speak with Dr. Subir Sachdev: Harvard physicist and one of th...
23 Dec 20252h 34min
How to Build Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computers | Austin Fowler on Surface Codes + TQEC
Would we get a quantum computer sooner if everything was open source?In this episode, we speak with Austin Fowler, one of the architects of quantum error correction and a pioneer of the surface code u...
9 Dec 20251h 50min
Why Syncing Atomic Clocks is Virtually Impossible | Judah Levine on UTC
Why is syncing atomic clocks still one of the hardest problems in physics and engineering?In this episode, we speak with Judah Levine—legendary NIST physicist and one of the key architects of modern t...
26 Nov 20252h 4min
Can We Predict History Like the Weather? | Peter Turchin on Cliodynamics
Why do civilizations rise, prosper, and then collapse? Here's what the math tells us.In this episode, we sit down with Peter Turchin, complexity scientist and founder of the field of cliodynamics, whi...
4 Nov 20251h 18min
