The Ongoing Transformation
Episodes
Edward You Protected America From Bioterror
24 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
On Science Policy IRL, we talk to people in science policy about what they do and how they got there. Most of the people we’ve interviewed work in t...
Building a Tech Innovation Ecosystem in Newark
03 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Innovation lately feels synonymous with the digital entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley or the high-tech corridor of Route 128 outside Boston. But when Th...
Who Sets the Standard?
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What do the design of high-visibility public safety vests, the distance between two railroad tracks, and the protocols that allow for file transfers b...
How Cannabis Regulation Became a Giant Experiment
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Cannabis policy in the United States has been, in many ways, a giant experiment. The drug was recently reclassified by the Trump administration from a...
How Is AI Shaping the Future of Work?
13 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For as long as people have speculated about the development of artificial intelligence, they have debated its potential impacts on the labor market. T...
Science Policy IRL: Bhavya Lal Charts a Future for Humans in Space
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Science Policy IRL, we talk to people in science policy about what they do and how they got there. In this installment, host Lisa Margonelli talks ...
Making AI Chatbots Safer
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence assistants such as Google’s Gemini have exploded in popularity, constantly offering to help summarize a document, craft an e...
Not Now, But Soon: The Art of Portraying War
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our miniseries Not Now, But Soon challenges the stories we often tell about disasters and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better...
Not Now, But Soon: Losing Your Country
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our miniseries Not Now, But Soon challenges the stories we often tell about disasters and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better...
Not Now, But Soon: Who is Worth Measuring?
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our miniseries Not Now, But Soon challenges the stories we often tell about disasters and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better...
Not Now, But Soon: The Food System is Rigged
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our miniseries Not Now, But Soon challenges the stories we often tell about disasters and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better...
Not Now, But Soon: A Hurricane of Data
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our new miniseries, Not Now, But Soon, challenges the stories we often tell about disasters, and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create...
Not Now, But Soon
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why do disasters happen? How do we rebuild after a disaster? What lessons can we learn from them? Our new miniseries, Not Now, But Soon, challenges th...
What Does a Cormorant Feel?
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
People know that their pets are unique individuals. Each dog has his or her own quirks, likes, and dislikes. But what about cormorants? Research revea...
Neil Chilson Helps Turn Knowledge into Benefits for Humanity
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Think tanks are a vital part of the policy ecosystem, but what do they do? In this installment of Science Policy IRL, host Jason Lloyd talks to Neil C...
How ADHD Affects Adults
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was once thought of as a condition that affects only children. The belief was that children would grow...
Kelvin Droegemeier Articulates a Vision for American Science
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kelvin Droegemeier, a longtime leader in science policy, joins host Megan Nicholson for this installment of Science Policy IRL. Droegemeier began his ...
Using Storytelling to Investigate Scientific Questions
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fiction can be an important tool to explore complex science and technology questions: Would our legal system be more equitable if an AI delivered verd...
Taylor Spicer Empowers Scientists and Engineers to Engage Locally
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Science Policy IRL, we talk to people in science policy about what they do and how they got there. We’ve shared stories of how people have found ...
Music and Health: Your Brain on Music
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens in your brain when you hear your favorite song? In our Music and Health podcast miniseries, we’re exploring how music affects our mind...
The Rise of Deadly Fungal Pathogens
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fungi are ubiquitous in nature—in fact, you’re likely breathing in fungal spores as you read this. Most fungi are harmless to healthy people. But ...
Minimizing Cannabis' Harms to Public Health
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
More than half of US states have legalized cannabis for recreational or medical use. Regulations on cultivation, production, and marketing vary from s...
Music and Health: Dancing Together
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“People always say, ‘Well, if I could only do one art form, what would it be?’ And I always say dance.” —Susan Magsamen In our podcast mini...
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Misinformation?
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Vaccines, oil spills, genetic engineering, and stem cells—anywhere there’s science, there’s also misinformation. It muddies our ability to make ...
Music and Health: The Creative Arts and Healing
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From lullabies to movie soundtracks to workout playlists, music has the capacity to change how we feel. But what is the evidence that music’s effect...
Reindeer!
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Alaska, reindeer are much more real than the fantasy animals that pull Santa’s sleigh. Introduced to Alaska from Siberia by the US government in ...
A Cutting-Edge Bureaucracy
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The word "bureaucracy" conjures up images of red tape and long lines at the DMV, not cutting-edge innovation. But some of the most significant scienti...
The Hidden Engineering that Makes New York Tick
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New York City is the perfect place to understand the importance of modern engineering, but the most valuable lessons won’t be found at the Empire St...
Ending Inequities in Health Care
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The United States spends more on healthcare than any other high-income country, yet we have some of the worst population health outcomes. Our health c...
Uncovering Hidden Bias in Clinical Research
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Check the end of any recent study, and there will be a list of study funders and disclosures about competing interests. It’s important to know about...
How the Octopus Got to the Senate
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Octopuses are famously smart: they can recognize individual humans, solve problems, and even keep gardens. They are also a popular food for humans: ar...
Lav Varshney Connects AI Research, Executive Policy, and Public Service
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this installment of Science Policy IRL, host Jason Lloyd goes behind the scenes of the White House Fellowship program with Lav Varshney, associate ...
Cool Ideas for a Long, Hot Summer: Indigenous Sustainability
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In our miniseries Cool Ideas for a Long, Hot Summer, we’re working with Arizona State University’s Global Futures Lab to highlight bold ideas abou...
Cool Ideas for a Long, Hot Summer: Refugee Communication Networks
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In our miniseries Cool Ideas for a Long, Hot Summer, we’re working with Arizona State University’s Global Futures Lab to highlight bold ideas abou...
Cool Ideas for a Long, Hot Summer: Solar-Powered Canoes
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In our new miniseries Cool Ideas for a Long Hot Summer, we're working with Arizona State University’s Global Futures Lab to highlight bold ideas...
Cool Ideas for a Long, Hot Summer: Environmental Justice
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This has been a record-breaking summer all over the world. Many cities have recorded their hottest days ever, and June 2024 was the hottest month on r...
Rashada Alexander Prepares the Next Generation of Science Policy Leaders
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since 1973, the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellowship (STPF) has brought thousands o...
A Road Map for a New Era in Biology and Medicine
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most people are familiar with DNA, but its cousin, RNA, has become widely known only recently. In 2020, of course, RNA was in the news all the time: t...
Introducing: What Could Go Right? Climate Capital and a Green Tech Future
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Ongoing Transformation will be back next week with a fantastic episode on RNA and the future of biology. This week we are sharing a podcast from t...
Brent Blevins Makes Mars Policy in Congress
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On this installment of Science Policy IRL, Lisa Margonelli goes behind the scenes of Congressional policymaking with Brent Blevins. Blevins is a senio...
How Can STEMM Do A Better Job of Caring for Its Caregivers?
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Caregiving is a nearly universal human experience, but it’s not often thought of as an issue with implications for our nation’s science, technolog...
Kei Koizumi Advises the President
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this installment of Science Policy IRL, Kei Koizumi takes us inside the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP. As the pr...
To Fix Health Misinformation, Think Beyond Fact Checking
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When tackling the problem of misinformation, people often think first of content and its accuracy. But countering misinformation by fact-checking ever...
Amanda Arnold Sees the Innovation Ecosystem from a Unique Perch
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this installment of Science Policy IRL, we explore another sector of science policy: private industry. Amanda Arnold is the vice president of gover...
This Eclipse Could Make You Cry–And Make New Scientists
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Douglas Duncan is an astronomer who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope. He is also an eclipse fanatic. Since 1970, he has been to 11 total solar ecl...
Science Policy IRL: Walter Valdivia Researches for the White House
12 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Science Policy IRL series pulls back the curtain on who does what in science policy and how they shaped their career path. In previous episodes we...
Building Community in the Bayou
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the age of 19, Monique Verdin picked up a camera and began documenting the lives of her relatives in the Mississippi Delta. Little did she know tha...
Alta Charo Considers Ethics for Stem Cells and CRISPR
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A lawyer and bioethicist by training, Alta Charo has decades of experience in helping to formulate and inform science policy on new and emerging techn...
Zach Pirtle Explores Ethics for Mars Landings
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
NASA’s Artemis project aims to establish a long-term human presence on the moon—and then put astronauts on Mars. So in addition to designing rocke...
Turning a Policy Idea Into a Pilot Project
10 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
By day, Erica Fuchs is a professor of engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. However, for the past year she’s also been running a pilot project—...
Science Policy IRL: Apurva Dave Builds Connections Between National Security and Climate
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Early in his career, Apurva Dave was an oceanographer; now he works at the cutting edge of climate policy at the National Academies of Sciences, Eng...
A Venture Capitalist for Better Science
28 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Stuart Buck has referred to himself as a venture capitalist for making science more efficient, reliable, and accountable. As vice president at the pol...
Science Policy IRL: Quinn Spadola Develops Nanotechnology With Soft Power
14 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Since 1984, Issues in Science and Technology has been a journal for science policy—a space to discuss how to best use science for the benefit of soc...
Sustaining Science for the Future of Ukraine
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After Russia invaded Ukraine, hundreds of scientists fled the country and hundreds more remained behind. Those scientists who stayed are trying to con...
The Complicated Legacy of the Green Revolution
10 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Green Revolution was a program of agricultural technology transfer that helped poor countries around the world increase food production from the 1...
Open Science: Moving from Possible to Expected to Required
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A decade ago, University of Virginia psychology professor Brian Nosek cofounded an unusual nonprofit, the Center for Open Science. It’s been a cheer...
Blue Dreams: Connecting People With Ocean Research
05 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There is more life in the ocean than anywhere else on Earth. Accounting for over 70% of the planet’s surface, the ocean provides habitat to millions...
Secretary Ernest Moniz on the Diplomatic Role of “Cumulative” Science
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last 40 years, US and Chinese scientists at all levels have been engaged in broad-based diplomacy, publishing hundreds of thousands of scient...
Combating the “Multi-Dimensional Beast” of Chronic Pain
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chronic pain, according to a 2023 study, affects more Americans than diabetes, depression, and hypertension. Yet the disease is poorly understood, oft...
Artificial Intelligence and the Moral Imagination
06 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence’s remarkable advances, along with the risks and opportunities the technology presents, have recently become a topic of fever...
Race, Genetics, and a “Most Dangerous Myth”
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The concept of distinct races came from European naturalists in the 1700s and it’s now recognized as a social construct, rather than a biological cl...
The Microscope and the Metaphor
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What does intuitive, emotional poetry have in common with rational, empirical science? On this episode, host J. D. Talasek talks to poet Jane Hirshfie...
To Solve the AI Problem, Rely on Policy, Not Technology
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence is everywhere, growing increasingly accessible and pervasive. Conversations about AI often focus on technical accomplishments ...
Finding Collective Advantage in Shared Knowledge
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The CHIPS and Science Act aims to secure American competitiveness and innovation by investing $280 billion in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, sc...
Confronting Extreme Heat with the World’s First Chief Heat Officer
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Miami is so renowned for its warm weather that its professional basketball team is the Miami Heat. But extreme heat can be life-threatening, even in c...
You've Been Misinformed About Sharks
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Recent conversations about scientific misinformation have concentrated on what is new: social media and algorithms that spread all kinds of informatio...
What’s Driving the Electric Car Revival?
07 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022, there were more than 2 million electric vehicles, or EVs, on the road in the United States. In 2005, there were only about 1,000. The convent...
Collaborations on Ice
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How can scientific data be made more tangible, visceral, and experiential? Collaboration! Over the course of a four-year project, Arctic Ice: A Visual...
Shirley Malcom: Where Science and Society Meet
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Shirley M. Malcom is a trailblazer in the area of broadening participation in science. Currently senior advisor and director of the SEA Change initiat...
Peaches, Pimentos, and Myths of Innovation
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The challenge of transforming regional economies through technological innovation is at the heart of current discussions about science and industrial ...
To Solve Societal Problems, Unite the Humanities with Science
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How can music composition help students learn how to code? How can creative writing help medical practitioners improve care for their patients? Scienc...
How to Fix the Bus
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Buses are an inexpensive and easy-to-deploy form of mass transit that could help reduce traffic congestion and curb air pollution. But in the United S...
How can Clinical Trials Better Reflect Society’s Diversity?
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Clinical trials are crucial to the development of new drugs, medical treatments, and therapeutics. The knowledge gained from these trials helps ensure...
The Forgotten Origins of the Social Internet
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The typical history of the internet tells a story that emphasizes experts and institutions: government, industry, and academia. In this origin story, ...
Fruitful Communities
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Food is an essential part of our lives, but for many people fresh food is something they find in a grocery store, not growing in their communities. Ho...
BONUS EPISODE: A Historic Opportunity for U.S. Innovation
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This summer, Congress is trying to reconcile the differences between two massive bills focused on strengthening US competitiveness and spurring innova...
Biotech Goes to Summer Camp
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Who gets to be a scientist? At BioJam, a free Northern California summer camp, the answer is everyone. This week we talk with Callie Chappell, Rolando...
Rethinking Hard Problems in Brain Science
10 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to exploring the mind-boggling complexity of living systems—ranging from the origins of human consciousness to treatments for neurodeg...
Demystifying the Federal Budget
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How do budgets evolve into policies? As Congress starts to appropriate money for President Biden’s 2023 budget requests, we talk with Matt Hourihan,...
Chasing Connections in Climate Action
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There is scientific consensus on climate change and its human cause, but how to understand and address global warming remains a divided topic in Ameri...
Can Bureaucracy Build a Climate Revolution?
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Between 2009 and 2019, India brought electricity to half a billion citizens, and then turned around and presided over a grid where power from wind and...
Creating a “High-Minded Enterprise”: Vannevar Bush and Postwar Science Policy
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Vannevar Bush is a towering figure in US science and technology policy. A science adviser to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman during and after World Wa...
Maximizing the Good of Innovation
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The United States is justifiably proud of the accomplishments of its taxpayer-funded biomedical innovation system. But these innovations don’t benef...
Fighting COVID with Art
15 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The COVID vaccines are highly effective at preventing infection, serious illness, and even death from COVID, but many are hesitant to get vaccinated. ...
Shaky Science in the Courtroom
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Eyewitness testimony and forensic science are key forms of evidence used in criminal cases. But over the past few decades DNA analysis—and the exone...
The Marvelous and the Mundane: Art and the Webb Telescope
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The James Webb Space Telescope’s revolutionary technology is expected to reveal secrets of every phase of cosmic history—from within our solar sys...
Dinosaurs!
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It may surprise you to learn that the enormous dinosaur skeletons that wow museum visitors were not assembled by paleontologists. The specialized and ...
The Art of a COVID Year
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the early days of the pandemic, communities began singing together over balconies, banging pans, and engaging in other forms of collective support,...
Eternal Memory of the Facebook Mind
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Social media platforms like Facebook and Spotify analyze huge quantities of data from users before feeding selections back as personal “memories.”...
Doing Science with Everyone at the Table
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Could we create more knowledge by changing the way we do scientific research? We spoke with NASA’s Psyche mission’s principal investigator a...
Science Policymakers’ Required Reading
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every Monday afternoon, the Washington, DC, science policy community clicks open an email newsletter from the American Institute of Physics’ science...