The World as You’ll Know It: The Future Of Aging
Episodes
Getting the Most From Our Extra 30 Years
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For over a century, we’ve been in the midst of a revolution in longevity – one that is unprecedented in human history. More than a quarter century...
How to Be a Super Ager, with Eric Topol
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The world today is oversaturated with trends, tips, and treatments for how to live long and be healthy while doing it. But it can be hard to know who ...
Why Women Live Longer Than Men
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Women tend to live longer than men, even under the most difficult conditions like famines and epidemics. While it’s true that women tend to go to th...
Why Haven’t We Solved Alzheimer’s?
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve known about Alzheimer’s and its devastating effects for more than 100 years, and have been predicting an imminent cure for at least the last...
We’re Underestimating Older Brains
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A forgotten name, misplaced keys, feeling overwhelmed by some new technology. Classic signs of a brain beginning its long, inexorable descent into old...
The Truth About Biohacking
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Blood transfusions, cryotherapy, experimental drugs and intermittent fasting are just a few of the measures so-called biohackers are taking in hopes o...
The Billion Dollar Bet: Will Humans Live to 150?
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2000, two scientists — Steve Austed, a biologist and Jay Olshanksy, a biostatistician — made a bet. Would a person live to the age of 150 by ...
Introducing: The Future of Aging
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Human beings are living longer than ever. Thanks to advances like vaccines, antibiotics, pasteurized milk and clean water, we’ve added more than 30 ...
Can We Pull Carbon Out of the Air?
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Paris Climate Agreement says we need to reach “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050. That means for every new carbon molecule we put in the air,...
Has the Moment for Hydrogen Finally Arrived?
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hydrogen has long been the great hope of the environmental movement. Hydrogen-powered cars; airplanes; even home heating. A single molecule could powe...
Keeping Cool Without Warming the Planet
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Heat kills more people in the United States than any other weather event, and scientists expect the earth to continue to get hotter. Unfortunately, o...
Is the U.S. Ready for a New Nuclear Age?
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The United States was once on track to be a world leader in nuclear power, building more than 100 plants in the 1970s and 1980s. But cost and safety c...
The Great American Road Trip, Reimagined
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Americans drive more, drive further, and pay less for fuel than people in other developed countries. Partly for this reason, our vehicles are more tha...
Climate Change and the Surprising Success of Solar Power
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the past 50 years, solar energy has surpassed all expectations. Even early solar experts couldn’t predict how affordable and widespread it would ...
Introducing: The Great Rebuild
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re currently involved in one of the most ambitious projects we, as humans, have ever attempted: Rebuilding the world, pretty much from the ground...
The Race to Control AI
29 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In our final episode, Host Gary Marcus shares his hopes for and fears about an AI-driven future. On the one hand, AI could accelerate solutions to so...
When Bots Become Our Friends
22 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Some people use chatbots for therapy. Others have fallen in love with them. And some people argue that AI systems have become sentient and are entitle...
AI Took My Career!
15 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The emergence of generative AI threatens to automate millions of jobs, potentially ushering in a new and unprecedented wave of job displacement. In th...
How AI Will Turbocharge Misinformation
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Misinformation has already influenced our elections, ruined reputations and fundamentally changed society’s relationship with the truth. Now, large ...
Can AI Make You Laugh?
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
New large language models are capable of writing essays, drafting marketing pitches and having human-like exchanges on chat apps. But can they make u...
What Happens When AI Takes The Wheel?
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We've been promised wide-scale driverless cars for more than a decade, but a true driverless experience still remains out of reach. It turns out that...
Watson Part 2: How IBM’s Big Bet Failed
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After its victory on Jeopardy, IBM made a billion-dollar bet on Watson: cancer. But it turned out that diagnosing patients isn’t the same as answer...
Watson Part 1: And the winner is…Watson!
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2011, Watson, a computer built by IBM, shocked the world by becoming the first non-human contestant to win Jeopardy. An immediate sensation, Watson...
Humans vs. Machines with Gary Marcus
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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, Ga...
05: The Future of Psychedelics in Healthcare
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Matthew Johnson about the state of psychedelic research today and the likelihood that certain drugs — MDMA and psilocy...
04: Outsmarting Chronic Pain
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 As...
03: Technology and Mental Health Care
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Thomas Insel, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, about the failures in mental healthcare and how technology could be an ...
02: Solving the Mysteries of Alzheimer’s
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Judith Warner speaks with Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, a neurologist and professor at Harvard University, about the possible causes of and coming treatments for...
01: Unlocking The Brain: How Computers Can Read Our Thoughts
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Judith Warner speaks with Dr. John Donoghue about recent advancements in brain computer interface, or BCI, a technology that allows paralyzed people t...
Season Three: The Future of the Brain with Judith Warner
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The last decade has seen astonishing advancements in brain science that have opened doors to new ways of treating trauma, depression, and pain. Each w...
06: How Governments Can Shape Technology
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kurt Andersen speaks with economist and author, Mariana Mazzucato, about how governments should be proactive investors in and stewards of technologica...
05: The Likelihood and Risks of Superintelligent Machines
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kurt Andersen speaks with computer scientist Stuart Russell about the risks of machines reaching superintelligence and advancing beyond human control....
04: Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Life
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kurt Andersen speaks with Genevieve Bell, cultural anthropologist and founding director of The School of Cybernetics, about how people adapt to change...
03: How Business Models Have Shaped Big Tech
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kurt Andersen speaks with Roger McNamee, the author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe, about the evolution of Facebook and other big t...
02: Our Brains and Technology
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Host of this season’s The World as You’ll Know It, Kurt Andersen, speaks with Alison Gopnik, cognitive scientist, author, and professor of psychol...
01: The Future of Social Media
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Host of this season’s The World as You’ll Know It, Kurt Andersen, speaks with Sinan Aral, professor at MIT and author of “The Hype Machine,” a...
Season Two: The Future of Technology with Kurt Andersen
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Technology is at an inflection point. Can we harness it to make life better...or will it harness us? Join Kurt Andersen as he and a world-class selec...
05: The Future of Cities
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week features two conversations. In the first, Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic for The New York Times, speaks to Julián Castro, forme...
04: The Future of Higher Education
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Tough, author, most recently, of "The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us," speaks to Paul LeBlanc, President of Southern New ...
03: The Future of Economic Policy
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Steven Greenhouse, the author of "Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor," speaks to Jared Bernstein, former Chief Ec...
02: The Future of Work
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Steven Greenhouse, the author of "Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor," speaks to David Autor, the Ford Professor ...
01: The Future of Climate Change
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Wallace-Wells, the author of "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming" speaks to Christiana Figueres, the former Secretary of the United Nat...
Introducing: The World As You'll Know It
16 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to The World as You'll Know It, a new podcast that pairs established journalists with experts to discuss the ways in which Covid-19 will shape...