Podcasts by Should This Exist?

Recommended: Spark&Fire from 2020-12-21T10:00

If you love Should This Exist, I think you’ll love Spark & Fire – so I’m sharing a trailer with you now for this new show that launches on January 5, 2021. 

Why do I think you’ll ...

Nuclear power in a six-pack from 2020-12-16T10:00

When you think of nuclear power, what do you envision? For many people, the answer is Chernobyl or Fukushima: massive meltdowns that turned vast areas into radioactive wastelands. But those were...

Cloud brightening for climate fever from 2020-12-09T10:00

Kelly Wanser is a climate activist who wants to use a strategy called cloud brightening to fight climate change, using a naturally occurring process to bounce rays from the sun back out to space...

The promise of a bioartificial kidney from 2020-12-02T10:00

UCSF bioengineer Shuvo Roy and his team have created the world’s first bionic kidney. The coffee-cup-sized device includes a silicon nanotechnology filter to cleanse the blood, while living kidn...

Could this game replace the SAT? from 2020-11-18T10:00

Standard college admissions tests are:

a. based on an outdated model of intelligence;

b. exclusionary;

c. a lucrative business and a near-monopoly;

d. all of the abov...

VR vs. PTSD from 2020-11-11T10:00

A VR system called Bravemind allows combat veterans with PTSD to confront and process their trauma in a virtual environment. The therapy, developed by psychologist Skip Rizzo, shows promise for ...

Young blood / old brains from 2020-10-28T09:00

What if you could extend your healthy life by 10 or 20 years – with a blood transfusion from someone younger and healthier than you? Research by Stanford professor Tony Wyss-Coray shows potentia...

Grandma, here’s your robot from 2020-10-21T08:00

Is it the loneliest idea you’ve ever heard? Or an ingenious hack that helps human caregivers be more attentive and empathetic? You might have these questions when you meet the robot caregivers w...

Contact tracing: So promising. So invasive. from 2020-10-15T09:00

It’s one of the best weapons we have to contain a pandemic. But can it defeat the disease without spying on people who might carry it? MIT’s Kevin Esvelt has a bold idea: Let’s try a new form of...

The deepfake detective from 2020-10-14T09:00

Chances are, you’ve seen a “deepfake” video. But did you know it? A new breed of tech detectives are building tools to spot these hyper-realistic videos – built with AI – where people say things...

Season 2 Trailer: Should This Exist? from 2020-09-29T02:00

How is technology impacting our humanity? It’s the question of our times. Join host Caterina Fake for Season 2 of Should This Exist – where each week we take a single technology and ask: What’s ...

What went wrong with the world wide web – and how we can fix it from 2019-07-16T02:00

The web is broken. Data is mined, sold, and exploited. Social media is an endless and biased scroll through the worst of humanity. Nobody’s personal information is safe. And worst of all, it’s i...

How to hack your way out of aging from 2019-06-27T02:00

Imagine meeting your great-great-great-grandkids. Or going to law school in your 80s, learning to snowboard at 110, taking a gap decade instead of a gap year. Greg Bailey dreams of a world where...

The next gen of meat will be grown in a lab from 2019-05-30T02:00

Imagine biting into a steak that didn’t come from a cow. Or a chicken breast that did not come from a chicken. Imagine if your favorite meat dish did not involve an animal getting killed. This i...

What if you could Photoshop your voice? from 2019-05-21T02:44:43

Mike Pappas and Carter Huffman believe their invention fulfills the promise of the digital world: the complete freedom to design your identity. But what if we all used it? The human voice is a k...

We can change the DNA of an entire species — in the wild from 2019-05-02T02:18:34

Kevin Esvelt knows the stakes are high. As a geneticist at the MIT Media Lab, Kevin discovered a technique called a gene drive, which gives humans a power we’ve never had before: to change the D...

When your invention becomes a weapon from 2019-04-11T02:14:06

What do you do if your invention becomes a weapon? This happened to Chris Anderson, former editor of Wired Magazine, who launched DIY Drones, an open source community that helps anyone ...

The return of supersonic flight from 2019-03-28T02:00

Throughout human history, we’ve wanted to fly – and to fly fast. So it’s hard to resist Blake Scholl’s idea. His startup, Boom, is building a new supersonic jet, which will fly at twice the spee...

What if your phone could detect how you feel? from 2019-03-14T02:00

What if your computer had an "emotion chip" — AI that could read the expression on your face (or the tone in your voice) and know how you’re feeling? Could online courses teach you better if the...

Tell your troubles to the chatbot from 2019-02-27T03:00

Woebot is a mobile app that gives one-on-one therapy and gets 2 million messages a week. But Woebot isn't a person – it's a chatbot. It was invented and developed by psychologist Alison Darcy an...

This headset helps you learn faster. But is that fair? from 2019-02-21T03:00

Neuroscientist Daniel Chao created a headset that hacks your brain with electricity so you can learn as fast as a kid again. It’s called Halo, and it helps you learn motor skills faster. Athlete...

This headset helps you learn faster. But is that fair? from 2019-02-21T03:00

Neuroscientist Daniel Chao created a headset that hacks your brain with electricity so you can learn as fast as a kid again. It’s called Halo, and it helps you learn motor skills faster. Athlete...

This headset helps you learn faster. But is that fair? from 2019-02-21T03:00

Neuroscientist Daniel Chao created a headset that hacks your brain with electricity so you can learn as fast as a kid again. It’s called Halo, and it helps you learn motor skills faster. Athlete...