Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Eric Schmidt: AI: The Good, the Bad and the Scary.

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

He was for many years the CEO of Google where he had a bird’s eye view of the dramatic evolution of artificial intelligence. And while he is alarmed...

Fei-Fei Li: The Godmother of AI

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

She earned that unofficial title from her peers through her pioneering work harvesting big data to power AI, leading to the recent breakthroughs such ...

Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda - Season 24 trailer

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd chat about and play excerpts from Alan's conversations with some of the guests in the new season, beginning n...

Cynthia Breazeal: Her Robots Have Warmth!

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Their social, communicative and emotional skills allow her robots to seamlessly collaborate with us. A pioneer in the field of social robotics, Cynthi...

Abraham Amiri: From Afghanistan to the Stars

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An unquenchable passion for astronomy born from gazing at the stars from a rooftop as a child led to his setting up a nationwide program in astronomy ...

Steve Inskeep: Lessons from Lincoln

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A new book takes a fresh look at Abraham Lincoln’s life by recounting sixteen face-to-face encounters Lincoln had with people who differed with him,...

Leslie Odom Jr: Bursting Out

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A Tony winner for his performance as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, he is now starring on Broadway in the hit play Purlie Victorious. One of the secrets to h...

Kate Cohen: Asks if You Need God to be Good

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It took her years to admit to family and friends that she was a non-believer.  But she found that pretending to believe wasn’t working. Her book...

Peter Hotez: The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book, the doctor familiar on TV in his white coat and bow tie tells how his attempts to correct lies about covid vaccines led to death thre...

Heather Cox Richardson: She’ll Write You a Letter

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Two million of us get a letter in our inboxes every morning with a calm, clarifying take on what happened yesterday— from the perspective of a his...

David Brooks: How to Know a Person

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Columnist and author David Brooks tells how he’s changed over his 60 something years –  in part through the books he’s written exploring how p...

Marcus du Sautoy: Around the World in 80 Games

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Enjoy playing games? You’ll enjoy them even more once renowned mathematician, Oxford University professor and avid game player Marcus du Sautoy tell...

How "Maid" Was Made

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Stephanie Land’s lifelong passion for writing – along with a college degree she could ill afford – led to a bestselling book and a hit TV series...

Frank Felberbaum: Don’t Forget!

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Not only does he have an astonishing memory himself, but Frank Felberbaum has taught thousands of others, including Alan, how to improve their memory ...

Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda - Season 23 trailer

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd chat about and play excerpts from Alan's conversations with some of the guests in the new season, beginning n...

Walter Isaacson: Shadowing Elon Musk

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The acclaimed biographer spent two years in Musk’s company as his subject launched rockets, built electric cars, decided to save humanity by sendin...

Laurel Braitman: Writing Wrongs

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A life full of adventure while struggling with grief led her to what she does so effectively today – helping doctors to level with colleagues and pa...

Carl Safina: Wisdom from a Baby Owl

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Carl tells how rescuing a baby owl helped him and his wife get through the Covid lockdown – and how it renewed their bond with nature. There’s wis...

Joe Henrich: How Culture Has Shaped Our Bodies and Brains

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

He’s fascinated by how culture has shaped our evolution – not only changing our bodies and expanding our brains but even expanding our ability to ...

Kashmir Hill: Your Face Belongs to Us

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

That’s the title of a new book by New York Times technology reporter Kashmir Hill. Her book is both deeply researched and downright scary, as spelle...

Matthew Walker: Sleep REALLY Matters

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Author of a best-selling book called Why We Sleep, and host of the Matt Walker Podcast, he’s become the go-to expert on everything to do with sleep,...

Maya Shankar: Beginning from an Ending

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A brilliant violinist in her teens, her world came crashing down when an injury ended her career even as it was beginning. Remarkably, she turned that...

Adam Mastroianni: Why You So Often Get It Wrong

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Do you believe people are worse now than they use to be? That smarter people are happier people? That you know when to quit a conversation? Wrong on a...

Nancy Kanwisher: Your Brain is a Swiss Army Knife

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nancy Kanwisher has discovered many areas of the brain that are specialized for one particular purpose— like recognizing faces – which is interest...

Elizabeth Rush: Journey to the Doomsday Glacier

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

She managed to write a lyrical, moving book about her journey to a massive glacier in Antarctica that, if it collapses into the ocean, would cause a...

Robert Klein: He Observes, We Laugh

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The actor/writer/comedian has been an inspiration to comedians like Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld. And he’s been inspired himself by greats of the pas...

Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda - Season 22 trailer

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd chat about and play excerpts from Alan's conversations with some of the guests in the new season, beginning n...

Dan Dennett: Fake People Aren’t Funny

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Counterfeit people, the seductively appealing Deep Fakes made possible by AI, are just the beginning of what the distinguished philosopher Dan Dennet...

Steve Sloman and Phil Fernbach: How Do You Know That?

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us don’t know most things. Yet most of us also think we understand a lot (OK, not quantum mechanics or Federal Reserve policy). We are all l...

Aomawa Shields: When an Actor is Starstruck

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Torn between astronomy and acting, she has landed in the sweet spot: leader of a research team judging other planets for their hospitality for life, w...

Alan Lightman: Can Science Explain Spirituality?

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A physicist whose world has no room for spirits, but who has experienced many eerily transcendent moments – both in nature and in his work – sets ...

Steve Israel: Disagreeing Without the Hate

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A member of the US House of Representatives for 16 years before retiring – unindicted and undefeated as he likes to say – Steve Israel knows the...

Dan Levitt: You Are Stardust. Really

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every atom in your body – and there are more than all the grains of sand in the world­ – came from outer space, many of them created moments afte...

Adam Gopnik: The Joy of Getting Good at Something Hard

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The New Yorker essayist explores the mystery of mastery as he tackles skills he believed he could never learn. Including boxing, figure drawing and –...

Brenna Hassett: Why We Are Weird

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Of all the attributes that make us humans unique – or in archeologist Brenna Hassett’s view, weird – the weirdest of all is our extraordinaril...

Michael Turner: The Dazzling Cosmos

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When funding for the James Webb Space Telescope was in doubt, cosmologist Michael Turner argued passionately that it would transform our understanding...

Daniel Libeskind: His buildings speak for themselves

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The prizewinning architect has designed some of the world’s most dramatic, daring, and memorable buildings. Inspired by optimism, wonder, music, and...

Eric Topol: A Covid Reckoning

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With the national state of emergency for Covid-19 now officially over, we invited physician and author Topol to reflect on his experience writing a r...

Clear + Vivid with Alan Alda - Season 21 trailer

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd chat about and play excerpts from Alan's conversations with some of the guests in the new season, beginning n...

Ken Duckworth: Navigating mental illness

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chief medical officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Dr Duckworth has written a guide for those with mental health problems that along wi...

Susan Goldin-Meadow: Thinking with your hands

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Decades spent studying the way we use our hands when we talk has convinced Susan Goldin-Meadow that not only do gestures help our listeners understand...

Valerie Fridland: English evolves, like it or not

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Annoyed by all those likes and so’s and you knows, not mention ahs and ums? In her delightfully titled book Like, Literally, Dude, Valerie Fri...

Dava Sobel: The Women Who Brought the Stars to Earth

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Starting in the late 19th century, a group of women at the Harvard Observatory pored over hundreds of thousands of glass photographic plates bearing ...

Judd Apatow: Funny, With a Side of Feeling

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For decades now, he’s been building a comedy empire as writer, director and producer of a string of movies and TV series. Judd Apatow explores his e...

Kieran Setiya: Facing up to Life

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Life is hard. But drawing on the insights of philosophers ancient and modern, Keiran Setiya has written a witty and hope-filled book chronicling his o...

Nita Farahany: The Battle For Your Brain

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Her new book takes a deep dive into neurotechnology – the ability to read and record your brain waves. While there are many potential benefits – N...

Liev Schreiber: The Ukrainian Connection

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by his Ukrainian grandfather, Liev has launched a campaign to fund humanitarian relief for the people of Ukraine. His several trips there inc...

Alan chats with the bots

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Farrell makes a guest appearance to perform with Alan the first new MASH scene in 40 years – a scene written by a chatbot. Most of Alan’s oth...

Kevin Kelly: Help Wanted – AI Whisperers

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alan is a little obsessed with chatbots, and he’s become only too aware that these products of artificial intelligence can become seriously – even...

Sy Montgomery: For the love of hawks… and turtles

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Her almost uncanny ability to connect with creatures from rhinos to octopuses led her to a love affair with one of the planet's swiftest and fiercest ...

Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda - Season 20 trailer

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd chat about and play excerpts from Alan's conversations with some of the guests in the new season, beginning n...

Cassandra Quave: Hunting Plants That Heal

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A childhood illness robbed her of a leg, but that hasn’t stopped her from trekking through jungles, swamps and mountains in search of medicinal plan...

Sara Seager: Is There Life Out There?

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Pioneering a new way to search for signs of life on planets circling other suns, Sara Seager battled through a devastating personal loss to see her me...

Pamela Adlon: Getting Better All the Time

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

She wrote, produced, directed and starred in the hit series “Better Things” for five years. Nominated multiple times for multiple awards, she rece...

Karen Bakker: The Sounds of Life

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Her new book lets us eavesdrop on the chatter between creatures – even plants – that our ears can’t detect. And reveals how new technologies, in...

Daniel Lubetzky: On a Mission to Spread Kindness

10 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The founder of the multi-billion-dollar nutrition bar company KIND has rolled out "Starts With Us," a non-partisan movement working to overcome cultu...

Kathy Kleiman: The six women who programmed the first modern computer

03 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Built during WWII, the world’s first electronic computer, the ENIAC, was an engineering marvel. But at 80 ft long and 6 ft tall it was mute until it...

Thomas Boothby: On a Tough Little Guy With Secrets

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You need a microscope to see them, but tardigrades aren’t only nature’s ultimate survivors – they hold secrets that may make vaccines more avail...

Alison Gopnik: Making AI more childlike

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The renowned expert on how babies learn about the world through curiosity and exploration is now collaborating with artificial intelligence researcher...

Les Johnson: Sailing to the Stars

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The NASA engineer piggybacked a tiny spacecraft on the giant new moon rocket launched just last month. His spacecraft was to spread gossamer wings and...

Kate Klonick: Can Social Media Not Be So Anti-Social?

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kate watched up close as Facebook struggled to moderate its content. And that makes her the perfect guest to unravel the chaos surrounding Elon Musk’...

Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone: Married – and loving it.

29 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The dynamic couple is writing, producing and acting in hit movies and TV series all while being the parents of two daughters. Alan wonders if this re...

Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda - Season 19 trailer

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd chat about and play excerpts from Alan's conversations with some of the guests in the new season, beginning n...

Lindy Elkins-Tanton: What’s at the Core?

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In her riveting memoir, A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman, Lindy Elkins-Tanton writes of the unconventional path she has taken to becoming ...

James Zimring: Fuzzy thinking and the Big Whopper

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Too many of us instinctively feel that a quarter pound hamburger is bigger than a third of a pound. And that’s just one of the mistakes we make in t...

Scott Hershovitz: Little Kids Asking Big Questions

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The philosopher's kids were asking surprisingly deep questions, so Scott Hershovitz was inspired to write a book, subtitled Adventures in Philosophy w...

Gregory Berns: Does your dog know you better than you know yourself?

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Neuroscientist Greg Berns, who scanned dogs' brains to find out if they love their humans, now has a new book, The Self Delusion, that challenges what...

John and Julie Gottman: Welcome to the Love Lab

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Decades of research with thousands of couples have enabled husband and wife John and Julie Gottman to predict whether relationships will prosper – o...

Kate Marvel: Human fingerprints on Hurricane Ian

11 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After exactly predicting the almost unprecedented damage Ian would cause, climate scientist Kate Marvel argues the time for questioning the role of gl...

Jay Baruch: In the ER, your story matters

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Physician Jay Baruch has learned from experience that diagnosing a patient in the emergency room requires more than clinical tests. It requires liste...

Ken Auletta: Power and Abuse in the Movie Business

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How was Harvey Weinstein able to continue his abuse of women for so long – over four decades? Journalist Ken Auletta explores the enabling “cultur...

Charles Limb: To be Creative Don’t Think So Hard

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Combining his passion for music with his ability to peer inside the brain as it’s working, neuroscientist Charles Limb finds that creativity needs r...

Francis Collins: Bridging Science and Faith

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Head of the National Institutes of Health for 13 years and now interim science advisor to President Biden, Francis Collins is that rarity in the scien...

Molina, Garber and Alda: Together Again

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The actors Alfred Molina and Victor Garber and Alan reminisce about the play that first brought them together 24 years ago – an experience that cha...

Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda - Season 18 trailer

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd chat about and play excerpts from Alan's conversations with some of the guests in the new season, beginning n...

Phillip Dettmer: The World in a Nutshell

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A high school dropout who went on to create the immensely popular YouTube channel Kurtzgesagt (In a Nutshell) ignites curiosity about science in uniqu...

Carl Bergstrom: Why Birds Don’t Lie and We Do

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Trying to figure out how to stop the spread of misinformation on social media, Carl Bergstrom draws from his studies of how birds stick to the truth w...

Lucy Cooke: Where Females Call the Shots

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Are men more fit to lead, and more interested in sex than women? Lucy Cooke takes on these myths and more, telling Alan how she visited women biologis...

Frans de Waal: Gender, Apes, and Us

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gender fluidity is tolerated a lot more among our cousins— chimpanzees and bonobos— than in our species. The famed primatologist Frans de Waal te...

Paul Dooley: Movie Dad

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alan and Paul Dooley started out as actors around the same time and in this conversation they have a reunion. In the years between, Paul has gone from...

Katie Mack: When Time’s Totally Up

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The end of absolutely everything won’t happen for a long, long time. But Katie Mack can describe the different ways the universe might die with clar...

Ed Yong and Liz Neeley: They Have Storytelling Down to a Science

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Stars in the field of science communication, they know how to make the rest of us want to learn about something we don’t think we care about. They e...

Arthur Brooks: Investing in Happiness

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When he realized that the skills that had led to his successes in the first half of life needed to be replaced by other skills for the next half, s...

Mónica Guzmán: She Never Thought of It That Way

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Her realization that if she’d led the life her parents have, then she would have voted for Trump too, was an insight that contributed to her decisio...

Emanuel Ax: Reaching Out Through Music

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alan talks with longtime friend, the great pianist Emanuel Ax. How does practice lead to the unexpected magic of spontaneity? What role does the audie...

James Burrows: He Gave Us Thousands of Reasons to Laugh

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

He brought us classics like Cheers, Taxi, Will and Grace, Frasier, Friends and The Big Bang Theory. He's directed over 1,000 episodes of TV comedy. J...

Conny Aerts and George Whitesides: Starquakes and Tiny, Tiny Factories

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

She listens to quakes in stars far, far away, to help predict if they host earth-like planets. He makes it possible to build factories so small you ca...

Huda Zoghbi and Christopher Walsh: Hunting Genes that Damage our Brains

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Two of the winners of the just-announced Kavli Prizes in neuroscience on what inspired their breakthrough research. And how their discoveries may help...

Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda - Season 17 trailer

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd chat about and play excerpts from Alan's conversations with some of the guests in the new season, beginning n...

Ardem Patapoutian and Emmanuelle Charpentier: Touching the Horizon

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ardem Patapoutian discovered more about our sense of touch than we ever knew and Emmanuelle Charpentier co-invented the most powerful biomedical tool ...

Mike Brown and Millie Dresselhaus: Exploring the very big and the very small

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Brown, the man who demoted Pluto, is now hot on the trail of a new planet 9, much bigger than Earth and way beyond Neptune. And the brilliant car...

Kashmir Hill: Reporting from the Future

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Putting herself as she says, “inside the tech worlds to come,” reporter Kashmir Hill explores how the technology that’s making our lives easier ...

David Linden: How Come You’re So Special?

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While filling out an on-line dating app – listing his traits and those of an ideal partner – neuroscientist David Linden began to wonder what make...

Bette Midler: How She Became Divine

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The multitalented singer, actor, songwriter, author tells Alan how her childhood in Hawaii shaped not only her career but also now moves her to bring...

Saul Perlmutter: The Man Who Upended the Universe

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After making the astonishing discovery that what he and his fellow cosmologists thought they knew about the universe was wrong, Saul Perlmutter began ...

Hope Jahren: What You Can Do to Save the Planet

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The author of the wonderful memoir Lab Girl turns her turns her ability to be both clear and vivid to providing a path forward for a new generation ta...

Billy Collins: When Words Have a Mind of Their Own

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

His poems are loved by millions. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003, Billy Collins achieves both depth and accessibility in the same moment. His words o...

Chris Hadfield: Song of an Astronaut

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

His descriptions of living in space make you feel you’re on the ship with him. His performance of the David Bowie song Space Oddity in a video he be...

Sarah Ruhl: What if you couldn’t smile?

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A successful playwright with plenty to smile about – a new play opening on Broadway and the birth of twins – suddenly lost her ability to smile. H...

Gal Beckerman: How Quiet Whispers Lead to Radical Roars

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a widely praised new book, The Quiet Before, Gal Beckerman paints vivid pictures of how throughout history, radical change has only come about thro...