• 31 minutes 20 seconds
    Best of: The future of language learning

    As kids head back to school this month, we're re-releasing a conversation with cognitive scientist Michael Frank on the future of language learning. Michael studies the similarities and differences in how children and AI systems learn language. He’s working to understand what accounts for the “data gap” between how efficiently children learn language from relatively little input, compared to how much data AI systems need. His goal is to build better scientific models of human language acquisition and to inform how AI systems might learn in more human-like ways. Whether you’re parenting an infant or toddler who is learning to talk or you're simply curious about how language learning unfolds for people across languages and cultures, this one's a great listen.

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    Chapters:

    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces this episode with Michael Frank, a professor of biology, psychology and linguistics at Stanford University.

    (00:02:05) AI and Child Language Learning

    How AI language learning and child language learning differ.

    (00:05:23) WordBank and Big Data

    How large language databases are helping researchers study child language development across cultures.

    (00:08:04) Learning Across Languages

    How children learn many different languages through broadly similar developmental processes.

    (00:08:57) Babbling and Early Speech

    How babies begin exploring the sounds and signs of their language.

    (00:10:04) Multimodal Learning

    How SAYCam & BabyView capture multimodal language learning 

    (00:13:12) Language as a Social Tool

    How social cues help children break the code of language.

    (00:15:12) Learning from Others

    How children track uncertainty and seek help from social partners.

    (00:18:05) ManyBabies

    How a global research consortium studies child development across cultures and communities.

    (00:20:11) Global Development Research

    Why large-scale international collaboration is valuable but difficult to fund.

    (00:21:36) Pragmatics

    How children learn to infer meaning beyond the literal words people say.

    (00:23:21) AI, Intent, and Common Sense

    Why pragmatics matters for building AI systems that understand human intent.

    (00:24:21) Reading to Children

    Why books can support language learning through shared attention and rich social interaction.

    (00:26:38) Early Language Exposure

    Why it is never too early to interact with babies through language.

    (00:27:53) Multilingual Children

    How children can learn multiple languages with few negative consequences.

    (00:30:35) Conclusion

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    4 September 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 30 minutes 16 seconds
    The future of cities

    Jackelyn Hwang is an expert on the social dynamics of cities. In one line of research, she combines AI and Google Street View to measure quality-of-life factors – such as trash, blight, new construction, and the pace of recovery from climate disasters – to analyze gentrification, racial equity, and overall resident well-being. Her work has shown, for instance, that predominantly Black neighborhoods are last and slowest to gentrify and that displaced Black residents often end up in worse neighborhoods. She recently worked with policymakers at the housing department of Oakland, California, on anti-displacement and anti-homelessness programs and is now working with policymakers across the Bay Area to strengthen neighborhoods. We are clearing a path to more stable communities for everyone, Hwang tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces guest Jackie Hwang, a professor of sociology at Stanford University.

    (00:02:53) Path into Urban Sociology

    How Hwang’s experiences near Philadelphia shaped her interest in cities, inequality, and neighborhood change.

    (00:04:56) The 21st-Century American City

    How gentrification, immigration, crime, education, housing, and climate change are reshaping cities.

    (00:08:03) Defining Gentrification

    How sociologists understand gentrification as a class-based transformation of neighborhoods.

    (00:10:02) Studying Gentrification

    Why race, segregation, and neighborhood inequality complicate simple stories of urban renewal.

    (00:11:50) Displacement and Instability

    Why gentrification does not always increase moving rates, but still affects where people end up.

    (00:14:48) Policy and Anti-Displacement

    How Hwang’s research informs local policy, housing strategy, and homelessness prevention.

    (00:18:10) Measuring Neighborhood Change

    How technology can help researchers study changing neighborhoods at scale.

    (00:18:55) Google Street View and Cities

    How Street View opened new ways to observe gentrification and neighborhood conditions.

    (00:20:36) Computer Vision for Urban Research

    How AI and computer vision are being used to analyze neighborhood conditions.

    (00:21:53) What Neighborhoods Reveal

    How visible signs like trash, blight, vacant lots, and construction signal neighborhood change.

    (00:23:10) Eye Tracking and Perception

    How researchers study what people notice in neighborhoods and how those cues affect stress.

    (00:24:09) Climate Change and Recovery

    How disasters can widen neighborhood inequality through uneven rebuilding and abandonment.

    (00:26:14) Neighborhoods and Wellbeing

    How better measurements of neighborhood conditions could guide interventions for safer, more stable communities.

    (00:28:00) Future In a Minute

    Rapid-fire Q&A: affordable housing, neighborhood change, and better urban data.

    (00:29:32) Conclusion

     

     

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    28 August 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 30 minutes 6 seconds
    Best of: The future of addiction

    Today, we're re-releasing my conversation with psychiatrist Anna Lembke on the future of addiction. Whether its substances, screens, or work itself, addiction in some form touches nearly all of our lives either directly or through someone we care about. Anna breaks down the dopamine mechanisms behind addiction of all kinds, from opioids to social media to, in her own case, romance novels, and shares what actually works in recovery, including exercise and structured abstinence. Whether you're thinking about screen habits, substance use, or just how to build healthier routines, this one's well worth another listen.

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    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces Anna Lembke, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.

    (00:01:52) Defining Addiction

    Why addiction involves compulsive use despite harm, even when the behavior seems ordinary.

    (00:03:31) Romance Novels and Harm

    How Lembke’s own reading habit became a case study in subtle addiction.

    (00:05:49) Dopamine and the Addicted Brain

    What repeated dopamine spikes do to reward pathways and withdrawal symptoms.

    (00:08:34) Seeing the Problem

    How naming a compulsive habit can make it visible and open the door to change.

    (00:10:34) Addiction Medicine Today

    How the opioid epidemic changed medical training and addiction awareness.

    (00:12:48) Russ Altman’s “Addictions”

    Russ details his own dopamine habits for the audience.

    (00:14:37) Exercise and Hormesis

    Why movement, effort, and discomfort can help restore healthier dopamine patterns.

    (00:17:22) Dopamine Fasting

    The self-intervention Dr. Lembke used & her potential cross-addictions.

    (00:21:22) Vulnerability to Addiction

    Why genetic risk, family history, and drug of choice shape addiction vulnerability.

    (00:22:53) The Opioid Epidemic

    How prescription opioids, heroin, and fentanyl shaped three waves of crisis.

    (00:24:51) Fentanyl and Overdose Risk

    Why counterfeit pills and fentanyl exposure can be lethal even for new users.

    (00:26:28) Treating Opioid Addiction

    Why medications like methadone and buprenorphine help restore stability.

    (00:28:17) The Future of Addiction

    Why Lembke sees addiction as a long-term challenge across drugs, media, and food.

    (00:29:22) Conclusion

     

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    21 August 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 34 minutes 7 seconds
    The future of neuroimaging

    Psychologist Russ Poldrack is a mind reader of sorts, but not in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, he makes movies of blood flow in the brain using functional MRI to draw insights into the function of specific regions of the brain to decipher how they control behavior. In one example, Poldrack has shown how people with obsessive-compulsive disorder have enhanced “salience networks” that turn on when surprising things happen. This finding could have “very profound” outcomes in diagnosis and treatment, Poldrack tells host Russ Altman in this wide-ranging exploration of the implications and the ethics of functional neuroimaging on Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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    Chapters:

    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces guest Russ Poldrack, a professor of psychology and of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University.

    (00:03:15) Path into Neuroimaging

    How Poldrack moved from cognitive psychology into functional MRI research.

    (00:04:18) Functional MRI

    How MRI can be used to track brain activity.

    (00:06:59) Mapping Brain Activity

    How tasks and behaviors are linked to patterns of brain activation.

    (00:08:02) Resting Functional MRI

    How resting scans revealed large-scale brain networks.

    (00:09:00) Brain Networks and Behavior

    How the brain controls stopping, switching, and habits.

    (00:10:34) Layers of Brain Organization

    Why neuroimaging studies the brain across multiple scales.

    (00:13:04) Individual Brain Differences

    How shared brain networks vary across individuals.

    (00:13:34) Scanning Himself

    Why Poldrack repeatedly scanned his own brain.

    (00:15:47) Mapping One Brain Deeply

    How repeated scans revealed reliable individual brain patterns.

    (00:18:59) Neuroimaging and Mental Health

    How brain network differences may relate to depression and OCD.

    (00:21:42) Reproducibility in Brain Imaging

    How larger and deeper data sets improve reliability.

    (00:24:51) Analytic Variability

    Why the same data can produce different conclusions.

    (00:26:39) Multiverse Analysis

    How testing many analyses helps identify stable findings.

    (00:27:55) Open Science

    How data sharing and standards improve transparency.

    (00:30:29) Privacy and Brain Data

    How researchers protect participants when sharing neuroimaging data.

    (00:32:17) Future In a Minute

    Rapid-fire Q&A: neuroimaging, reproducibility, and AI in science.

    (00:33:22) Conclusion

     

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    14 August 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 36 minutes 43 seconds
    The future of clinical bioethics

    Prior to becoming an anesthesiologist, Alyssa Burgart trained in bioethics. She now counts herself among a growing number of certified clinical bioethicists who help doctors, nurses, patients, and their families handle ethically complex medical decisions at the bedside. Bioethicists are critical to care, Burgart argues, helping patients facing difficult choices to clarify personal values and weigh a complex array of risks and benefits, as well as emotions and familial, cultural, and religious norms. While much of her work is in pediatrics and maternal-fetal cases, she also studies how moral distress and moral injury impact clinicians, contributing to burnout among doctors and nurses. Having a strong ethical community brings resilience to these challenging environments, Burgart tells host Russ Altman in this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces guest Alyssa Burgart, a professor of anesthesiology and perioperative pain at Stanford University.

    (00:03:16) Path into Bioethics & Anesthesiology

    How Burgart became a bioethicist and then chose anesthesiology.

    (00:05:18) What Bioethics Means

    How bioethics helps connect medical decisions to values, risks, and benefits.

    (00:07:03) Making Hard Decisions Manageable

    How ethics consultation helps clinicians act with integrity.

    (00:08:33) Ethics Consults

    A detailed explanation of hospital ethics services 

    (00:12:23) Pediatric Ethics

    Examples of Dr. Burgart’s work with children, families, and clinicians

    (00:15:45) Culture, Faith, and Trust

    Navigating cultural and religious differences as a bioethicist.

    (00:17:57) Family Decision-Making

    How ethics consultants help families and care teams honor a patient’s voice.

    (00:21:55) Moral Injury

    What is moral injury and how do clinicians specifically experience it?

    (00:24:52) Institutional Betrayal

    Why barriers like policies, laws, and denied approvals can create moral strain.

    (00:26:37) Moral Distress

    What is moral distress and how does it manifest itself in healthcare.

    (00:28:28) Moral Residue

    When clinicians experience repeated moral strain and cannot recover between incidents.

    (00:29:33) Treating Moral Injury & Distress

    Strategies for helping clinicians manage these parts of their work.

    (00:33:54) Future In a Minute

    Rapid-fire Q&A: clinical bioethics, human dignity, and moral resilience.

    (00:36:15) Conclusion

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    7 August 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 34 minutes 26 seconds
    Best of: The future of AI and the law

    These days, AI is everywhere, and it’s increasingly hard to separate the gains from the slop. With that in mind, we're re-releasing my conversation with Stanford Law professor Daniel Ho on the future of AI and the law. When we look for applications where AI can deliver measurable benefit, the legal profession stands out, both for its potential gains in efficiency and equity, and for how much is at stake if we get it wrong. Dan's research — from using AI to identify racist property covenants buried in county deed records, to mapping obsolete regulations that waste thousands of hours of government time — shows what's possible when the technology is applied with rigor and purpose. If you’re curious about how AI can serve both justice and good governance, this one is well worth another listen.

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    Chapters:

    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces guest Dan Ho, a professor of law, political science, and computer science at Stanford University.

    (00:02:19) Path into Legal AI

    How Ho’s background shaped his interest in law, and technology.

    (00:03:35) What Lawyers Do

    What makes law a complex domain for AI.

    (00:05:28) Legal Hallucinations

    When AI  performs well and when it fails. 

    (00:07:52) Searching Legal Records in California

    How AI can help identify outdated, harmful, or legally important material.

    (00:10:28) Scaling Redaction

    How a model accelerated a process that overwhelmed county recorder offices.

    (00:13:04) Legal Reform at Scale

    How AI has supported legal reform by scanning massive bodies of law.

    (00:15:02) STARA & The City of San Francisco

    How AI was used to go through San Francisco’s code and clean up reporting.

    (00:20:53) Outdated Obligations

    How “regulatory sludge” takes the time & resources of the public service

    (00:25:02) Open vs. Closed AI

    The differences and associated risks of the different AI systems.

    (00:30:58) Legal Chatbots

    Why legal chatbots are promising but risky.

    (00:33:42) Conclusion

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    31 July 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 33 minutes 39 seconds
    The future of menopause

    Dr. Karen Adams, obstetrician/gynecologist and Farwell Family Director of the Stanford Program in Menopause and Healthy Aging, studies menopause and, perhaps more importantly, perimenopause – the critical years preceding it. During this time, hormone-related symptoms like mood instability, sleep disruption, hot flashes, and joint pain can be severe even though periods continue. Adams explains that perimenopausal symptoms are often misdiagnosed and improperly treated. She says hormonal therapies are safe and effective in perimenopause and menopause, and can even have heart and bone benefits. “Menopause is inevitable, but suffering is not,” Adams tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces guest Karen Adams, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University.

    (00:02:11) Path into Menopause Medicine

    How Adams built one of the first clinical programs focused on women over 40.

    (00:04:19) Menopause and Perimenopause

    What menopause is and how the hormonal transition often begins years earlier.

    (00:06:19) Beyond Hot Flashes

    The wide range of symptoms that can appear during perimenopause.

    (00:11:09) Pregnancy Risk During Perimenopause

    Why contraception can still matter until a full year without a period.

    (00:11:11) Unpredictable Symptoms

    Why perimenopausal symptoms can be harder to recognize than PMS.

    (00:13:37) Hormone Therapy

    How treatment differs during perimenopause and after menopause.

    (00:22:57) The Women’s Health Initiative

    What the landmark hormone therapy study showed.

    (00:27:53) Sexual Health and Vaginal Estrogen

    Why local estrogen can safely treat genitourinary symptoms for many women.

    (00:30:36) Future In a Minute

    Rapid-fire Q&A: menopause care, women’s health, and better clinical support

    (00:32:58) Conclusion

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    24 July 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 32 minutes 34 seconds
    The future of Parkinson’s disease

    Biochemist Suzanne Pfeffer is an expert on the molecular roots of Parkinson’s disease. Her work focuses on mutated proteins linked to Parkinson’s risk. She’s discovered, for instance, that drugs inhibiting one of the proteins can help neurons regrow primary cilia and stave off cell death, reversing disease progression. Since similar drugs are in clinical trials, her findings bring great hope for people with a subtype of Parkinson’s and hopefully can be linked to earlier detection through warning signs like REM sleep disruptions and loss of smell. “This is precision medicine,” Pfeffer tells host Russ Altman of the future of Parkinson’s disease on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces guest Suzanne Pfeffer, a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University.

    (00:03:25) Path into Parkinson’s Research

    How Pfeffer’s protein work led to a life-changing work on Parkinson’s disease.

    (00:05:28) Parkinson’s Primer

    The various causes and the effects of the disease on the brain and body.

    (00:10:26) Lewy Bodies and Dementia

    How Lewy bodies, synuclein, and dementia relate to Parkinson’s disease.

    (00:11:56) Molecular Trafficking

    Pfeffer breaks down the effects of LRRK2 and GBA mutations in the brain.

    (00:16:10) Early Disease Changes

    Some of the early changes in the body and how they show up as symptomatically.

    (00:20:04) Current Treatments

    The limitations of symptom-focused treatments.

    (00:21:46) Treating Earlier

    Opportunities for slowing or reversing disease progression when detected earlier.

    (00:22:32) Targeting LRRK2

    Current research on disease treatment & trial challenges.

    (00:27:33) The Value of Basic Science

    Why curiosity-driven research can unexpectedly lead to disease breakthroughs.

    (00:29:33) Future In a Minute

    Rapid-fire Q&A: biomarkers, brain donation, and better Parkinson’s treatments.

    (00:31:52) Conclusion

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    17 July 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 37 minutes 44 seconds
    The future of AI and the legal field

    Law professor Julian Nyarko has drawn attention for his studies using large language models to investigate and improve legal education and explore AI’s biases. He hopes AI can become a reliable, always-on legal learning and assistance tool to lower costs and expand access to legal services. In one recent study, he asked a group of law professors to evaluate written answers to student questions. Three-quarters of the time, the professors preferred AI-generated answers to those of their human colleagues. “AI is good at law,” Nyarko says, the challenge now is to use it most effectively, he tells host Russ Altman in this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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    Chapters:

    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces guest Julian Nyarko, a professor of law at Stanford University.

    (00:02:31) Path into AI and Law

    How Nyarko’s early work led him to legal AI.

    (00:05:03) Law, Economics, and Computation

    How Nyarko’s training, methods, and self-taught coding shaped his research.

    (00:07:23) Building the LIFT Lab

    Why a law professor started a lab.

    (00:09:06) Evaluating Legal AI

    How AI raises fundamental questions about what counts as good lawyering.

    (00:10:22) Improving Legal Services

    Using AI to work faster, reduce errors, and make informed decisions.

    (00:10:57) Rethinking Legal Education

    How AI may change the way future lawyers learn 

    (00:11:51) AI in Office Hours

    How AI answers law students’ questions compared with human professors.

    (00:15:18) Surprising Results

    Why AI answers were often preferred 

    (00:16:16) What the Study Shows

    The findings support AI tutoring, but don’t prove AI improves learning.

    (00:18:48) Limits of One-Shot Answers

    Why real teaching often depends on dialogue, clarification, and productive struggle.

    (00:20:59) AI for Social Science

    How AI can become both an object of study and a tool.

    (00:22:43) Research Agents

    Using AI to test claims and make previously impossible research scalable.

    (00:24:51) Agentic AI in the Lab

    How Socratic dialogue with AI can sharpen research ideas.

    (00:26:07) Fairness and Bias

    How computational tools can be audited for bias and used to audit decision-making.

    (00:27:29) Discrimination in Models

    Exploring bias and how it can be reduced.

    (00:30:16) Disparate Impact

    How policies and systems disadvantage groups even without explicit intent.

    (00:32:53) From Evidence to Policy

    How Nyarko’s lab works with stakeholders to surface disparities.

    (00:34:49) Future In a Minute

    Rapid-fire Q&A: justice, talent, and the future of legal AI.

    (00:36:57) Conclusion

     

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    10 July 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 32 minutes 32 seconds
    Best of: The future of wildfire management

    In the western United States and Canada, this time of year is the beginning of peak wildfire season, a reality that's become impossible to ignore. In light of this, we're re-releasing my conversation with energy and climate policy expert Michael Wara on the future of wildfire management. Michael walks us through how we got here, why fires are burning bigger and more frequently, and what a smarter, more proactive approach to managing our landscapes might look like. Whether you're in a fire-prone region or simply paying attention to the changing climate around you, this one is well worth another listen.

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    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces guest Michael Wara, a wildfire expert and professor of law at Stanford University.

    (00:02:05) Journey to Wildfire Research

    How Michael’s clean energy work led to wildfire research.

    (00:03:36) Communities at the Frontlines

    The community-level challenges and responsibilities in fire prevention.

    (00:05:53) Shifting Community Perspectives

    How awareness is rising but state efforts remain misaligned.

    (00:08:17) Legacy Homes, Modern Risk

    Why older homes pose a major risk and retrofitting is crucial.

    (00:09:55) Utility-Led Safety Limitations

    The significant but insufficient progress utilities have made.

    (00:13:23) Targeting High-Risk Areas

    How utilities now prioritize high-risk areas for safety upgrades.

    (00:14:30) Insurance Industry Realities

    Why insurers can't price risk without crashing markets.

    (00:17:19) Urban Wildfires

    How today's major fires in suburbs are mostly fueled by homes.

    (00:22:12) The Climate Change Multiplier

    The impact of atmospheric dryness and fuel moisture on fire risk.

    (00:24:45) New Fire Regulations

    Recent mandates that have been implemented to decrease fire risk.

    (00:28:17) Rethinking Wildfire Communication

    Why better messaging is key to changing homeowner behavior.

    (00:31:52) Conclusion

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    3 July 2026, 2:00 pm
  • 30 minutes 40 seconds
    The future of storytelling for health

    “Stories … are powerful tools that can help us make sense of our lives,” says physician-scientist Maya Adam. She now combines visual storytelling and health education to create animations that go beyond the barriers of language and culture to convey important health messages. The subject matter ranges from vaccine acceptance and addiction to mental health and nutrition. These emotionally engaging narratives – often without a single spoken word – are more effective than traditional pamphlets and lectures, Adam says. Visual stories have the potential to achieve “near-universal understanding” that can support better health outcomes, she tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.

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    Chapters:

    (00:00:00) Introduction

    Russ Altman introduces guest Maya Adam, a professor of pediatrics and infectious disease from Stanford University.

    (00:03:43) From Ballet to Medicine

    How Adam’s background shaped her approach to health education.

    (00:05:02) Why Stories Work

    Why lived experience makes evidence-based health recommendations more meaningful.

    (00:06:17) The Story Creation Process

    Adam’s techniques for creating effective scalable health stories on any topic

    (00:09:20) Real World Stories

    Adam shares some particularly challenging topics the team has created stories for

    (00:11:10) Global Accessibility

    Designing stories and characters that can resonate across cultures and contexts.

    (00:12:38) Measuring Impact

    Using technology to run trials to test and measure impact

    (00:15:23) Iterating the Message

    Adapting and changing approaches to create the most effective message

    (00:17:53) AI and Storytelling

    How AI is beginning to affect health communication and creative production.

    (00:19:45) Testing Human vs. AI Art

    A trial comparing responses to human-created and AI-generated health storytelling.

    (00:25:42) Human-in-the-Loop AI

    How AI may best support artists and clinicians by reducing burden rather than replacing

    (00:27:43) Future In a Minute

    Rapid-fire Q&A: stories, collaboration, media, and the future of health communication.

    (00:29:44) Conclusion

     

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    26 June 2026, 2:00 pm
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