Podcasts by Ask a Harvard Professor
A podcast presented by Harvard Magazine. Managing editor Jonathan Shaw sits down with some of the world’s most thoughtful scholars to discuss everything from academic ethics – to hip hop music and medical marijuana.
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Podcast on the topic Gesellschaft und Kultur
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Lawrence Lessig: What Leads to Academic Corruption? from 2023-12-13T14:13:11.553015
There’s a kind of academic corruption that most people have never considered. Not plagiarism. Not cheating on an exam. This is the kind of corruption that occurs when corporations and industry l...
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Robin Kelsey: Is a Photograph a Work of Art? from 2023-12-13T14:13:11.544703
What makes a photograph art? A great photograph may be the result of artistry, or it may be the result of dumb luck: a fleeting, perfect composition captured by chance. At a time when there is a...
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Joseph S. Nye: How Do Past Presidents Rank in Foreign Policy? from 2023-12-13T14:13:11.538453
Rating the foreign policy of presidents from FDR to the present day with Joseph Nye, formerly a government professor in FAS, later dean of the Kennedy School, now a University Distinguished Serv...
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David Cutler: Can the U.S. Healthcare System Be Fixed? from 2023-12-13T14:13:11.497973
No country in the world spends more on health care than the United States, or has less to show for it when compared to other wealthy nations. The U.S. spends nearly 50 percent more per capita th...
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William C. Kirby: Is China ready for leadership on the global stage? from 2023-12-13T14:13:11.489704
CHINA IS THE MOST POPULOUS COUNTRY ON EARTH, and until a few hundred years ago, it was also the most economically powerful. Today, China is ascendant on the world stage. What does its government...
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Danielle Allen: What Do COVID-19 and Extreme Inequality Mean for American Democracy? from 2023-12-13T14:13:11.479571
In this episode, political philosopher Danielle Allen explains why the COVID crisis, extreme inequality, and undemocratic government are all connected—and how democracy in America can still be r...
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Jeannie Suk Gersen: Do Elite Colleges Discriminate Against Asian Americans? from 2023-12-13T14:13:11.476409
Harvard Law School professor Jeannie Suk Gersen breaks down the use of race in college admissions and the future of affirmative action at the Supreme Court.
For more information about ...
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Michael Mina: Why Do We Still Need Rapid Tests? from 2023-12-13T14:13:11.462891
Epidemiologist and immunologist Michael Mina discusses the use of rapid tests as public health tools. Topics include using rapid tests to protect gatherings of friends and family; the difference...
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Sandeep Robert Datta and Venkatesh Murthy: Why is Smell Such a Mystery to Scientists? from 2023-12-13T14:13:11.459332
Neurobiologists Venkatesh Murthy and Sandeep Robert Datta discuss what scientists know about our sense of smell, and what big mysteries remain. Topics include smell loss from COVID-19, experimen...
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Claudia Goldin: Why Do Women Still Make Less Than Men? from 2023-12-13T14:13:11.449201
Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee professor of economics, shares the reason why working mothers still earn less and advance less often in their careers than men: time. Even with antidiscrimination laws ...
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Rudolph Tanzi: What Can People Do To Maintain Brain Health As They Age? from 2021-12-20T10:00
Harvard Medical School professor of neurology Rudolph Tanzi discusses how lifestyle choices can help maintain brain health during a person’s lifespan. Topics include Alzheimer’s disease and othe...
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Makeda Best: What Does Landscape Photography Say About Our Politics? from 2021-12-13T10:00
Makeda Best, curator of photography at the Harvard Art Museums and a visiting professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, shares her insights on landscape photographers, as well as photographers...
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Jerrold Rosenbaum: Are Psychedelics an Effective Treatment for Mood Disorders? from 2021-11-29T10:00
Jerrold Rosenbaum, director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics, discusses the potential of using psychedelics, such as MDMA and magic mushrooms, to t...
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Nicholas Stephanopoulos: Why Does Gerrymandering Matter So Much? from 2021-11-22T10:00
Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a political scientist and legal scholar whose research focuses on gerrymandering, explains its effect on American democracy and how it might be stopped. Topics include r...
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Emily Broad Leib: What Can be Done About Food Waste? from 2021-11-15T10:00
Emily Broad Leib, founder and director of Harvard’s Food Law and Policy Clinic, discusses how to reduce food waste in the United States and abroad. Topics include the confusion caused by mislead...
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Preview: Ask a Harvard Professor, Season Four from 2021-10-28T20:10
For more information about Harvard Magazine and this podcast, visit www.harvardmagazine.com/podcast and follow us on Twitter, Listen
Carrie Lambert-Beatty: What Happens When an Artwork Deceives its Audience? from 2020-11-30T11:00
The term “parafiction” refers to an artistic performance or presentation that depicts fiction as fact. This idea has particular relevance for our current post-truth moment, in which Americans fi...
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Francesca Dominici: How Does Air Pollution Affect COVID-19? from 2020-11-23T11:00
Discussing the link between air pollution and effects of COVID-19, and the importance of data for rapid public-health responses —with Francesca Dominici, professor of biostatistics at the Harvar...
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Rebecca Henderson: Does Capitalism Need to be Reimagined? from 2020-11-16T11:00
How to reform capitalism to confront climate change and extreme inequality, with economist and McArthur University Professor Rebecca Henderson
For more information about Harvard Magazin...
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Caroline Buckee: Can Mobile-phone Data Help Control the Spread of the Coronavirus? from 2020-10-26T10:00
Can cellphone technologies play a role in controlling the coronavirus pandemic? Knowing how public health policies interact with people’s actual behavior, even at an anonymous population-level v...
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Daniel Schrag and David Keith: Can solar geoengineering help fight climate change? from 2020-10-19T10:00
Climate change may be the hardest problem the human race has ever confronted. In a single century, humans have set in motion events that will unfold on a geological timescale, ultimately redrawi...
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Preview: Ask a Harvard Professor, Season Three from 2020-10-16T16:36:53
For more information about Harvard Magazine and this podcast, visit www.harvardmagazine.com/podcast and follow us on Twitter, Listen
Doug Elmendorf and Karen Dynan: How much can the federal budget and the deficit continue to grow? from 2020-04-13T11:00:18
What should be done now about the federal budget and the deficit, with Doug Elmendorf, dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, and Karen Dynan, professor of the practice of economics.
For more...
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Benjamin Sachs and Sharon Block: When did labor law stop working? from 2020-03-30T11:00:01
Why would it take an Amazon worker, employed full time, more than a million years to earn what its CEO, Jeff Bezos now possesses? Why do the richest 400 Americans own more wealth than all Africa...
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Nicholas Burns: Why Does Good Diplomacy Matter? from 2020-03-23T11:00:02
What role does diplomacy play in the modern world order, and what are the characteristics of a good diplomat? Which countries are the great powers today, and which will lead in 2050? Does NATO h...
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Maya Sen: Have U.S. courts become political prizes? from 2020-03-16T11:00:17
If judges truly are impartial arbiters of justice, why do politicians fight over who will be appointed to the bench? Are the courts actually a political prize? And are judges really akin to umpi...
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Preview: Ask a Harvard Professor Season Two from 2020-02-26T14:50:50
For more information about Harvard Magazine and this podcast, visit www.harvardmagazine.com/podcast and follow us on Listen
Marcyliena Morgan: How has Harvard Cultivated Hiphop? from 2019-10-21T11:00:04
What does hiphop culture—rap music, break dancing, and graffiti—have to do with Harvard? In this episode, Monrad professor of social sciences Marcyliena Morgan explains that hiphop began with th...
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Edward Glaeser: Should We All Be Living in Cities? from 2019-09-30T10:30:11
Cities are an integral part of Earth’s future: by 2050, 68 percent of the world’s population will be living in an urban area. Solutions to social problems, from climate change to poverty, will t...
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David Hemenway: Who Can Solve America’s Gun Problem? from 2019-09-23T11:00
Mass murders committed with firearms are becoming more frequent In the United States. And the total number of gun deaths, a majority by suicide, is now on par with those caused by automobile acc...
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Staci Gruber: How Does Marijuana Affect the Brain? from 2019-09-16T10:00:21
Weed, ganja, pot, flower, dope, grass, bud: marijuana has many names, but an even greater number of chemical constituents, from THC, the psychoactive component, to cannabidiols such as CBD, ofte...
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Introducing: Ask a Harvard Professor from 2019-07-29T14:54:05
For more information about Harvard Magazine and this podcast, visit www.harvardmagazine.com and follow us on Twitter, Listen