Author Walter Isaacson talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new biography of Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci, which he describes has a "culmination" of themes he explored in past books about Ada Lovelace, Ben Franklin and Steve Jobs. Isaacson explains how da Vinci's pursuit of the intersection of art and science made him who he was, and how his life's story can inform our thinking today about innovation and technology. He also dissects the biology of da Vinci's most famous work, the Mona Lisa, and explains why the portrait took 16 years to paint. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
No persons identified in this episode.
This episode hasn't been transcribed yet
Help us prioritize this episode for transcription by upvoting it.
Popular episodes get transcribed faster
Other episodes from Decoder with Nilay Patel
Transcribed and ready to explore now
Amazon’s Panos Panay on the long road to Alexa’s AI overhaul
03 Mar 2025
Decoder with Nilay Patel
Vimeo CEO Philip Moyer is betting on the human touch — and AI
24 Feb 2025
Decoder with Nilay Patel
DeepSeek, Stargate, and the new AI arms race
30 Jan 2025
Decoder with Nilay Patel
How Ciena keeps the internet online, with CEO Gary Smith
27 Jan 2025
Decoder with Nilay Patel
Why CEO Matt Garman is willing to bet AWS on AI
13 Jan 2025
Decoder with Nilay Patel
Answering your biggest Decoder questions
20 Dec 2024
Decoder with Nilay Patel