Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of America’s best-known astrophysicists and a huge advocate for the sciences and scientific thinking. Neil has a great talent for presenting complex concepts in a clear and accessible manner, a critical aspect of his role as an educator and director of the Hayden Planetarium. In this episode, Kevin talks with Neil about his interest in the sciences and innate curiosity, how he stays up to date in pop culture, topics he explores in his book Starry Messenger, and so much more! 

Neil deGrasse Tyson | StarTalk 

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Adrian Tchaikovsky is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer and probably one of our favorite authors right now. He is best known for his series Shadows of the Apt and Children of Time. In this episode, Kevin talks with Adrian about his upbringing and how he got interested in science fiction, his unique storytelling abilities, and how current AI technology such as ChatGPT will impact the future of sci-fi novels.  

Adrian Tchaikovsky 

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Today, we have a special guest joining us on the podcast—Bill Gates. With the rapidly evolving AI landscape, including the release of products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the new Bing, it was the perfect time to have Bill join to talk about this unique moment in the history of computing. In this episode, Kevin talks with Bill about the latest in AI research, including the release of GPT-4, how past technology revolutions have led us to where we are today, how AI is evolving his philanthropic work, his love of reading, and so much more!  

Bill Gates | GatesNotes 

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Empathy and emotions are at the center of how we connect and communicate as humans—in fact, 93 percent of how we communicate is accomplished through non-verbal means. Emotion AI (a subset of AI that measures, understands, simulates and reacts to human emotions) pioneer Rana el Kaliouby is on a mission to bring more emotional intelligence to the digital world. In this episode, Kevin talks with Rana about her upbringing and how she got into tech, her experience and challenges co-founding Affectiva and as Deputy CEO of Smart Eye, and the importance of infusing IQ and EQ into technology.  

Tobi Lütke, CEO and founder of the Canadian multinational e-commerce platform Shopify, is always looking for the tools he can use to build a better company. Since his early days running an online snowboard shop from his carport, Tobi has envisioned himself as fundamentally a craftsman first and a business exec second, a mindset that he has used to solve a wide variety of problems over the course of his career. In this episode, he joins Kevin to talk about applying computer science and engineering techniques to build and scale a company, the idea of bringing an ‘apprentice mindset’ to his work, and how his daily practice of writing code and tinkering in his home lab inspires him to be a more creative leader. 

As 2022 winds down, we revisit some of the year’s most inspirational and fascinating conversations with makers, engineers, award-winning sci-fi authors, and tech leaders—discussing topics ranging from building diversity into the ways we do work, to what the metaverse looks like now and far into the future, to imagining robots that know what you need before you do. 

XKCD is one of our favorite webcomics - and it started out as doodles in Randall Munroe's college notebooks. Munroe describes his work as “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” In this episode, he joins Kevin to talk about how he got started, where his inspiration comes from and his latest book, What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. Find out why a surprising number of cartoonists are physicists by training, explore the joy of seeking answers to seemingly impossible questions, and much more! 

Have you ever wondered who was behind the creation of Google Docs? Kevin talks with Sam Schillace, one of the people who launched the transformational – and at the time controversial – idea 16 years ago. Today, Sam is an engineering Corporate VP focusing on consumer product culture and next generation productivity who stresses the importance of asking “What if?” questions. Kevin and Sam talk career advice, the fact that there’s always tension in high functioning teams and why we’re on the cusp of a new technological era. 

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This 31-year old YouTube phenom constantly pushes the envelope with her unique inventions – from her Every Day Calendar or a screwdriver ring to the world’s ‘worst’ jigsaw puzzle. Kevin talks with Simone about how she gets the inspiration to make the things she creates, as well as challenges she faces as a product manufacturer. Learn about her future plans in this exciting episode. 

Imagine what more than 50 million daily users on a gaming platform can create! David Baszucki is an entrepreneur, engineer and inventor who co-founded Roblox. Anyone with kids likely knows that Roblox is an online game creation platform that lets users design their own games, play games created by others, and even get paid for their creations. Roblox has helped millions of up-and-coming game developers learn the basics of their domain and work on their talents. Kevin and David talk about the potential of these real time connection technology platforms – and what’s in store for our future! 

Imagine what more than 50 million daily users on a gaming platform can create! David Baszucki is an entrepreneur, engineer and inventor who co-founded Roblox. Anyone with kids likely knows that Roblox is an online game creation platform that lets users design their own games, play games created by others, and even get paid for their creations. Roblox has helped millions of up-and-coming game developers learn the basics of their domain and work on their talents. Kevin and David talk about the potential of these real time connection technology platforms – and what’s in store for our future! 

Imagine what more than 50 million daily users on a gaming platform can create! David Baszucki is an entrepreneur, engineer and inventor who co-founded Roblox. Anyone with kids likely knows that Roblox is an online game creation platform that lets users design their own games, play games created by others, and even get paid for their creations. Roblox has helped millions of up-and-coming game developers learn the basics of their domain and work on their talents. Kevin and David talk about the potential of these real time connection technology platforms – and what’s in store for our future! 

In this candid interview Alexis Ohanian, the enigmatic co-founder of Reddit, tells the story of how he created the company and talks with Kevin about his early days with Y-Combinator, how he taps into his ‘flow state’, and his new investment fund 776, which is deploying VC money, funding entrepreneurs, and incubating companies. 

This inspirational entrepreneur is building economies in underserved communities around the U.S by democratizing opportunities that technology can provide. Olguin raised one of the largest Series A rounds ever for a female, Latinx-led company, and as CEO and co-founder, she oversees Bitwise's operations teams, tech-focused training programs, and software development. Kevin talks with Irma about resilience, what it takes to overcome adversity, and giving back to your community.  

Irma Olguin | Bitwise Industries

Meet one of Kevin’s favorite sci-fi authors who influenced him as a kid growing up in rural Virginia. Kevin and this award-winning writer talk about metaverse and misinformation, as well as ways to combat climate change - including carbon capture, which Neal believes will be one of the biggest tech projects in human history. 

Imagine nature inspiring us to create robots of the future! Kevin explores the future with Dr. Daniela Rus, who heads MIT’s CSAIL program. Hear about the latest research on everything from AI & ML to Human-Computer Interaction and Computational Biology. 

Daniela Rus

It's time for our annual episode that revisits inspirational guests, including AI experts, bioengineers, Grammy winners, entrepreneurs and digital influencers. Topics range from research on AI and protein design, to robotics, to the importance of recruiting more girls for STEM. We also catch up with a few of our past guests to find out what they're up to these days. Wishing you all happy holidays and a healthy 2022!

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What could be more interesting than the human mind? Pinker is a best-selling author interested in all aspects of language and human nature. Kevin talks with this Harvard professor about the human mind, rationality and developmental linguistics.

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Steven Pinker

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iJustine – popular techie, gamer, and YouTube tech reviewer – has nearly 7 million subscribers across YouTube. Kevin talks with Justine about her career path, tapping tech to help build your own online platform and insights into what it’s really like to be a content creator.

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iJustine: https://www.youtube.com/ijustine

Kevin talks with Peter Lee about critical response scientific research, deep learning and neural networks – all related to Covid-19 and Microsoft’s growing healthcare and life sciences initiative. Listen in as they also discuss the key role that public trust plays in the work of scientists and researchers.

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Steven Bathiche, who’s behind some of the most innovative Microsoft products, shares his philosophy of life and talks about new computing form factors from AI and machine learning to robotics. Listen in as Kevin talks with Steven about where creative ideas originate – and how to use failure to create your next success.

Kevin Scott

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Join Kevin for a fascinating conversation with Chase Jarvis – CEO and Founder of CreativeLive. The CreativeLive platform gives millions of people ways to discover their passions. Find out how exploring your “creative side” can inspire a successful career. It’s Creativity with a capital “C”.  

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CreativeLive

Technology is influencing protein design research in ways that would have been science fiction a decade ago. Find out how engineering and biology are working together today to improve our health and how researchers are designing new biological compounds to fight chronic disease - and prepare us for the next pandemic.

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Foldit

This charismatic leader talks about untapped potential – and why encouraging young people to study computer science is critical for the future of technology. Find out how Kimberly’s efforts are impacting STEM initiatives across the U.S.

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BlackGirlsCode

Join Kevin and this new distinguished scientist at Microsoft, Ashley Llorens, as they explore the future promise of artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous systems. Ashley is also a hip-hop artist known as Soulstice. Listen to their discussion about the parallels between careers in science and music.

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SoulStice on Apple Music

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Kevin’s conversation with this amazing duo was so fascinating, we’re publishing this bonus episode! Grammy-award winning musician Jacob Collier and MIT PhD Ben Bloomberg reflect on human and artificial intelligence and its impact on creativity. Find out how AI is playing a constructive role in this amazing duo’s creative work.

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Ben Bloomberg

Jacob Collier

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In this episode, Kevin talks tech and music with Grammy-award winning musician Jacob Collier and MIT PhD Ben Bloomberg, who designs the tech behind the music. Their unique collaborations are breaking new ground in the music industry, leveraging innovative technologies to design, create and perform. Find out how AI is playing a constructive role in this amazing duo’s creative work.

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Ben Bloomberg

Jacob Collier

The first African American woman in space chats with Kevin about human interstellar flight, the 100 Year Starship project, and experiential education. She talks about achieving one’s own level of excellence and explains why exploring an extraordinary tomorrow creates a better today. 

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100 Year Starship

LookUp

How can we use technology to better the lives of everyone on the planet? That’s a theme running through our favorite conversations of the year – from artificial intelligence to synthetic biology. Listen in to learn a few cool things about our extraordinary guests! 

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Oren is a leading thinker in neural networks and Natural Language Processing. His research is focused on foundational issues relating to intelligence, machine learning and web search. He’s received numerous honors and awards, including “Geek of the Year” from GeekWire.  

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Oren Etzioni

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Did sci-fi books inspire you to enter science or engineering? In this fascinating conversation, Kevin talks with one of his favorite authors about a broad range of topics from Trotskyism to bioscience research. 

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Charles Stross

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Former Stanford University professor Daphne Koller's cutting edge work combines machine learning and biology to transform pharmaceutical drug development. Her work at insitro is part of an emerging field - digital biology - that is having an impact on multiple fields, including biomaterial design, agriculture, and human health. This MacArthur Fellow was also named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people.

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Tom Daniel’s groundbreaking research melds neuroscience, engineering, computing, and biomechanics. Learn how three transformations in bioscience and technology are propelling us forward to better understand our world.

Host Kevin Scott

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Learn how Drew Endy, one of the world’s most well-known experts in synthetic biology, believes it can be harnessed to solve some of today’s most pressing issues – and why taking biology for granted is a dangerous thing.

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Microsoft’s first Chief Scientific Officer, Technical Fellow and world-renowned AI researcher, Dr. Eric Horvitz, gives us an insider’s look into how the experts are approaching the fight against Covid-19. Learn how AI and bioscience are playing a critical role in gaining insights into the best way to approach this pandemic and prepare for future challenges.  

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Listen in for a sneak peek into Kevin's new book “Reprogramming the American Dream.” Co-author Greg Shaw interviews Kevin about the future of AI and how it can evolve to better serve us all, from rural America to Silicon Valley.

Kevin Scott

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We talk with Stanford University Professor Percy Liang. They discuss the challenges of conversational AI and the latest leading-edge efforts to enable people to speak naturally with computers.

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Learn about the latest thinking for autonomous driving technology from Aurora CEO Chris Urmson, who led Google’s self-driving car program. This former Carnegie Mellon professor also tells us about his days with DARPA and shares predictions for 2020 and beyond.

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To wrap up the year, we revisit podcast conversations with a few of the incredible thinkers and innovators who have been on the show. Topics range from the democratization of artificial intelligence, to the challenges of social media and the internet. You may also hear some surprising things these folks do in their free time when they’re not changing the course of tech history in some fascinating way.

If you’ve heard of the 10,000 Year Clock, you know Danny. He’s a computer scientist, who pioneered parallel computers and their use in artificial intelligence. Danny founded Thinking Machines Corporation, a parallel supercomputer manufacturer, and was a fellow at Walt Disney Imagineering.

danah is a partner researcher at Microsoft Research, and founder of Data & Society. Her work examines where technology and society intersect. Kevin and danah discuss the dangers of a “move fast and break things” culture. Today, her research focuses on reducing weaknesses in sociotechnical systems.

Neha is cofounder and CTO of Confluent, a company whose mission is to help other companies use Apache Kafka to adopt modern streaming infrastructure.

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Sam started his first company at 19 – and has launched many more since then. From Y Combinator to OpenAI, his insights and determination spark inspiration. Hear Sam’s ideas about career motivation, and why he thinks the human brain may be replicable in silicon. 

Bill is one of Kevin’s engineering heroes. Listen as they talk careers, leadership and scaling teams – as well as a revolution in computer architecture and the resurgence of tech from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Find out what Bill, a partner at Sequoia Capital, says about tech trends to watch.

Fei-Fei Li is a professor at Stanford University and one of the world’s pioneering researchers in AI. Her work focuses on human-centered artificial intelligence. Hear her ideas about everything from visual intelligence to cognitive neuroscience.

From quantum mechanics and string theory to monkey brains and electrophysiology mapping, Surya’s take on AI may surprise you. Can we guide AI so it’s good for the world? This researcher is taking his cues from biology.

Author, angel investor and entrepreneur Reid Hoffman talks about starting and scaling massively valuable companies, hyper-competition, and the secrets of blitzscaling. Hear from Reid about the challenges to watch out for and the keys to success.

This scientist, musician and author is best known for his work in Virtual Reality, and his advocacy of humanism and sustainable economics in a digital context. His 1980’s startup, VPL Research, created the first commercial Virtual Reality products - introducing avatars, multi-person virtual world experiences and prototypes of major VR applications. Hear why he is worried the present Internet may be destroying societies, democracies and economies.

Mixed Reality innovator paints a picture for us about a big shift happening today. Learn how this cutting edge tech is evolving from novelty entertainment to an integral part of our daily lives.

Find out how a man who grew up on a sheep ranch in Argentina ended up a serial entrepreneur who many credit with bringing Bitcoin to Silicon Valley. Wences Casares explains why he believes in cryptocurrency – and how it might help solve some of today’s challenges in the world. Don’t miss this episode!

Science meets art. Danielle Feinberg, director of photography for lighting at Pixar Animation Studios wins Academy Awards by blending computer science with art – creating magical moments. Hear about how she shows the world, especially young women, the beauty of what math, science, code and art can create in the world.

In this episode of Behind the Tech with Kevin Scott, we’ll hear from Judy Estrin, whose distinguished career in the technology industry includes work as an executive, engineer, and serial entrepreneur. Besides serving on the boards at Disney and FedEx, she is former CTO of Cisco. Judy was one of the key figures in the development of the Internet, working with Vint Cerf on the initial TCP-project at Stanford. Tune in to find out to whom and what she attributes her success – it might surprise you!

Is AI the new “electricity”? Find out what one of the most influential leaders in Artificial Intelligence and deep learning has to say about our future.  Behind the Tech’s Kevin Scott talks with Andrew Ng about the Google Brain project, Coursera, Baidu and Ng’s most recent project, deeplearning.ai. You won’t want to miss this episode!

In this episode, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott sits down with Alice Steinglass, who leads Code.org.  Code.org is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing the participation by women and underrepresented minorities. Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science, just like biology, chemistry or math. Find out how this amazing organization is making a difference.

In Episode 1, Microsoft’s CTO Kevin Scott introduces us to one of his coding heroes, Anders Hejlsberg. Anders has had a 35-year career building tools that software developers love. He built Turbo Pascal, served as chief architect of Delphi, moved to Microsoft to help create C-sharp and today, spends his time as the core developer on Typescript. You may be surprised to hear how he got started in the tech industry.

Microsoft's CTO Kevin Scott talks about his new, upcoming Behind the Tech podcast.