From the producers of The World as You’ll Know It, a new series about the perils and promise of artificial intelligence with cognitive scientist, Gary Marcus. For all the progress in artificial intelligence over the last 70 years — computers can now beat people at chess and Go, detect fraud, give driving instructions and write like Shakespeare — we still don’t know how to build AI we can trust. The risks are serious, but the potential benefits of AI are too great to be ignored. In this special edition series, host Gary Marcus — cognitive scientist, best-selling author and AI entrepreneur — digs into AI’s history, present and future, bringing to life some of the technology’s most significant breakthroughs and failures. He enlists engineers, scientists, philosophers and journalists working at the forefront of AI to explore what’s wrong with our current approach and ways we might change it. Humans vs. Machines debuts this spring.

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Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Matthew Johnson about the state of psychedelic research today and the likelihood that certain drugs — MDMA and psilocybin specifically — could soon be approved for the treatment of conditions like addiction and PTSD. Psychedelics have long been known for their abilities to alter perception, but renewed interest by major research institutions in psychedelics’ ability to treat a range of common disorders has brought some of them to the precipice of FDA approval.

DR. JOHNSON is a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and a leader in the study of psychedelics for the treatment of addiction.

A transcript of their conversation can be found at Aventine.org/podcast.

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One out of five Americans suffer from chronic pain and a new approach to treatment could transform their lives. Judith Warner speaks with Drs. Yoni Ashar and Tor Wager, neuroscientists who are at the forefront of a new way to understand and treat chronic pain that looks to the brain rather than the body as pain’s source. The treatment is relatively new, but growing rapidly in acceptance, thanks in part to a groundbreaking study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this year in which two-thirds of participants who were treated with the new approach were pain free or nearly pain free after a month.

DR. ASHAR is a clinical psychologist and an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus; DR. WAGER is a neuroscientist and a professor at Dartmouth.

A transcript of their conversation can be found at Aventine.org/podcast.

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Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Thomas Insel, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, about the failures in mental healthcare and how technology could be an important tool in addressing them. 

DR. THOMAS INSEL was the head of the National Institute of Mental Health from 2002 to 2015, during which time he grew concerned about the lack of improvement in mental health outcomes despite great leaps forward in technology and brain science. He left for Silicon Valley, where, most recently, he founded Vanna Health, a company looking for community-based solutions for people with serious mental illness. In February, 2022 he published Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health.

A transcript of their conversation can be found at Aventine.org/podcast.

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Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, a neurologist and professor at Harvard University, about the possible causes of and coming treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease. One of the most complex and mysterious diseases ever known, Alzheimer’s has been the focus of Dr. Tanzi’s professional life for forty years; in 1987 he co-discovered the first gene that causes early onset Alzheimer's as a graduate student. 

DR. RUDOLPH TANZIi is the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Vice-Chair of the Neurology Department at Massachusetts General Hospital where he also serves as the Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit.

A transcript of their conversation can be found at Aventine.org/podcast.

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Judith Warner speaks with Dr. John Donoghue about recent advancements in brain computer interface, or BCI, a technology that allows paralyzed people to move and communicate through the power of their thoughts.

DR. JOHN DONOGHUE, the H.M. Wriston Professor of Neuroscience and Engineering at Brown University, has been a pioneer in the field of BCI research for over four decades, contributing to many of the breakthroughs that have made today’s progress possible.

A transcript of their conversation can be found at Aventine.org/podcast.

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The last decade has seen astonishing advancements in brain science that have opened doors to new ways of treating trauma, depression, and pain. Each week, host Judith Warner talks to leading brain experts about how their research is making possible the kinds of things that, just a few years ago, might have seemed like science fiction.

The World as You'll Know It returns for a third season on August 16.

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Kurt Andersen speaks with economist and author, Mariana Mazzucato, about how governments should be proactive investors in and stewards of technological innovation in order to increase technology’s benefits for the common good. 

MARIANA MAZZUCATO is a professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). She is the author of three books: The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths; The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy and, most recently, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism. 

A transcript of their conversation can be found at Aventine.org.

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Kurt Andersen speaks with computer scientist Stuart Russell about the risks of machines reaching superintelligence and advancing beyond human control. In order to avoid this, Russel believes, we need to start over with AI and build machines that are uncertain about what humans want.

STUART RUSSELL is a computer scientist and professor at University of California Berkeley. He is the author, most recently, of Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control. He has served as the Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Council on AI and Robotics and as an advisor to the United Nations on arms control. He is the author (with Peter Norvig) of the universally acclaimed textbook on AI, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach.

A transcript of this episode is available at Aventine.org.

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Kurt Andersen speaks with Genevieve Bell, cultural anthropologist and founding director of The School of Cybernetics, about how people adapt to changes in artificial intelligence and the way these technologies impact the way we live.

GENEVIEVE BELL is an Australian anthropologist and the founding director of The School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University. She is also a Senior Fellow in the Advance research and development labs at Intel.

A transcript of this episode is available at Aventine.org.

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