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  • Using Satellites to Prevent Famines

    Catherine Nakalembe is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland and the head of the Africa program at NASA Harvest, which uses satellite images to track agriculture around the world. Catherine’s problem is this:…

  • The Quantum Shift in Biomedical Discovery from Smart Talks with IBM

    When Dr. Lara Jehi began treating epilepsy patients in the 2000s, critical surgical decisions were driven more by clinician intuition and expertise than data. Today, she is a leader of IBM and Cleveland Clinic’s Discovery…

  • Can We Slow Down Aging?

    Nir Barzilai is a physician and a researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where he runs the Institute for Geroscience. Nir’s problem is this: How can we use lifestyle changes…

  • Why Doctors Use Evidence but Managers (Mostly) Don’t

    Helen Pearson is the author of the book “Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works.” Helen’s problem is this: How do you get people to make important decisions based on high-quality evidence, instead of…

  • The Job AI Was Supposed to Kill

    In 2016, Geoffrey Hinton, one of the inventors of modern AI, predicted that AI would replace radiologists within years. Ten years later, we have a shortage of radiologists. AI has yet to revolutionize the field.…

  • How China Won the Car Industry

    After spending decades as marginal players in the global auto industry, Chinese carmakers have become the world’s biggest exporters of cars. Chinese cars are some of the best cars on the planet, and they’re available…

  • Using Viruses to Fight Disease

    Phages are viruses that attack bacteria. People have been using phages to treat infections for over a hundred years, but in most cases they just don’t work as well as antibiotics.  Paul Garofolo is the…

  • How AI Could Reduce Inequality

    David Autor is a labor economist at MIT. He has written about how the arrival of personal computers increased inequality among American workers. But when it comes to AI, David thinks there could be a…

  • Racing Wildfires to Warn the Public

    John Mills is the CEO and co-founder of a nonprofit called Watch Duty. His problem is this: How do you build an app to warn people when they are in immediate danger from a natural…

  • How AI Could Actually Make the World Better

    Josh Tyrangiel is the author of “AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter.” On today’s show, Josh talks about some of these real people and the problems…

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