The Future of Everything

Nir Halevy, an expert on organizational behavior, first grew interested in social hierarchies as a basketball fan. He now studies what makes for healthy workplaces. Organizational hierarchies can be beneficial, but can turn toxic. When people have power without status – control but little respect – conflict often follows. Halevy says that collaboration, not competition, is key to employee well-being. “If you care about freedom, seek cooperative environments. They will liberate you,” Halevy tells listeners – and host Russ Altman – on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.
Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.
Episode Reference Links:
Stanford Profile: Nir Halevy
Learn more about Nir’s Book ‘Level Up’
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Russ Altman introduces guest Nir Halevy, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the dynamics of power, status, and hierarchy.
(00:03:42) Studying Social Influence
How Halevy became interested in the ways people gain influence in groups, teams, and organizations.
(00:05:40) What Is a Hierarchy?
How formal and informal hierarchies emerge around power, status, achievement, and influence.
(00:07:56) Why Hierarchies Are Sticky
The Positive and negative forces that contribute to the persistence of hierarchies
(00:10:15) Navigating Hierarchies
How people lower in a hierarchy can influence others without resorting to manipulation or undermining colleagues.
(00:13:01) Power vs. Status
Why having control over resources is different from being respected and admired.
(00:14:36) The Danger of Power Without Status
How low status combined with power can fuel resentment, conflict, and abuse of authority.
(00:16:39) Respect and Recognition
Why giving people dignity, appreciation, and status can matter as much as giving them more power.
(00:20:03) Autonomy at Work
How cooperation and competition shape people’s sense of freedom and control in the workplace.
(00:23:26) Secrets at Work
How workplace secrecy can increase stress and loneliness while also making work feel more meaningful and important.
(00:25:30) Supporting People in Confidential Work
Why social support can help reduce the isolation that comes with confidential work.
(00:26:12) Three Dimensions of Wellbeing
How happiness, interestingness, and meaningfulness can each shape the experience of work.
(00:28:30) A Pluralistic Approach to Leadership
Why recognizing different ways people contribute can help leaders support status, value, and wellbeing.
(00:29:54) Future In a Minute
Rapid-fire Q&A: cooperation, work-life balance, research partnerships, and hope for the future.
(00:30:56) Conclusion

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Hi everyone, we had big news out of Stanford this week: Karl Deisseroth has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries leading to optogenetics, a technique that makes it possible to switch individual nerve cells on or off in the living brain. To celebrate, we're re-releasing a live conversation Russ had with Karl a few years ago. He's both a bioengineer and a practicing psychiatrist, and he tells me how he built a way to control brain cells with light, why the odds were stacked against it, and how it could open the door to better treatments for psychiatric disorders. We also talk about his book Projections and what it takes to turn a long-shot idea into a tool that changes neuroscience. Congratulations, Karl, on an honor so well deserved. Whether this is your first listen or your second, it's one worth hearing.
Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.
Episode Reference Links:
Stanford Profile: Karl Deisseroth
Learn more about Karl's Nobel Prize win
Learn more about Optogenetics
Reactions to Karl's Nobel Win    
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Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Russ Altman introduces Karl Deisseroth, a professor of bioengineering, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
(00:04:49) Technology and Discovery
Why Deisseroth sees technology development and basic neuroscience as inseparable.
(00:06:36) What Is Optogenetics?
How light can be used to precisely turn specific cells in the brain on or off.
(00:08:27) Turning an Idea into a Tool
The process that led to optogenetics
(00:10:57) Microbial Opsins
How light-sensitive proteins from microorganisms became the foundation for controlling neurons with light.
(00:14:11) Optogenetics in Humans
How optogenetics has already been used to restore limited vision, and what that suggests for future therapies.
(00:17:37) Psychiatry and the Lab
How Deisseroth’s work with patients shapes the scientific questions his lab pursues.
(00:21:48) The Most Pressing Questions in Neuroscience Today
Why identifying the brain’s many cell types became a central goal of the BRAIN Initiative.
(00:24:28) Correlation vs. Causality
Why understanding which neurons actually drive behavior requires more than simply observing brain activity.
(00:26:52) Controlling Brain Networks
How researchers are beginning to study and manipulate multiple brain regions with precise timing.
(00:28:19) The Need for Neuroscience Theory
Why better technology creates a growing need for theories that can guide which neural circuits to study.
(00:29:38) Writing Projections
Why Deisseroth wrote about the inner worlds of psychiatric patients alongside the science of the brain.
(00:32:59) Capturing Patients’ Inner Worlds
How feedback from people with psychiatric disorders shaped Deisseroth’s view of the book’s impact.
(00:34:26) Conclusion


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Clinical psychologist James Gross is fascinated by what emotions are, and he champions emotional literacy – a deeper understanding of what makes each of us tick. In his research, Gross explores his “favorite topic,” emotion regulation, through the cognitive strategy of reappraisal to shift how we perceive and deal with unhelpful emotions. He talks about the Synergistic Mindsets intervention he co-developed, which is helping Gen Zers reframe their stress and regulate emotions. Emotions aren’t inherently bad, but we must separate the helpful from the harmful, Gross tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.
Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.
Episode Reference Links:
Stanford Profile: James Gross
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Russ Altman introduces guest James Gross, a professor of psychology and philosophy at Stanford University, and the science of understanding and regulating emotions.
(00:03:50) Why Study Emotions?
How Gross became interested in emotions and their role in shaping human behavior.
(00:04:22) What Is an Emotion?
How scientists define emotions as coordinated responses to situations that matter to us.
(00:06:00) Affect and Emotion
How affect differs from emotion, and why emotions may require more complex cognitive processing.
(00:07:59) Emotional Clarity
How recognizing what we feel and where those feelings come from can help us understand our emotions.
(00:09:53) Emotion Regulation
Why regulating emotions is less about suppressing them and more about deciding when they are helpful.
(00:12:25) Strategies for Regulation
How different approaches to emotion regulation work—and why some are more effective than others.
(00:13:30) How Emotions Are Generated
How situations, attention, expectations, and goals combine to produce emotional responses.
(00:15:25) Reappraisal
How changing the way we interpret a situation can change the emotions it produces.
(00:17:25) AI and Emotional Support
How large language models could potentially support people in reframing difficult experiences.
(00:18:09) Emotions in Everyday Life
How emotion regulation research can support parents, teachers, patients, and healthcare providers.
(00:20:53) Young People and Mental Health
How emotional clarity and regulation may help explain and address challenges facing younger generations.
(00:24:40) Understanding the Sources of Stress
Why social media, isolation, economic pressures, and other factors can shape young people’s emotional lives.
(00:26:15) Synergistic Mindsets
How changing beliefs about challenges and stress can produce healthier emotional and physiological responses.
(00:29:30) What Makes You Tick?
How a Stanford course helps students examine the forces shaping their behavior, emotions, and decisions.
(00:31:34) Emotional Intelligence
Why Gross sees value in emotion regulation while questioning whether “EQ” is scientifically established as a single intelligence.
(00:32:57) Future In a Minute
Rapid-fire Q&A: emotions, passion, & affective science.
(00:35:10) Conclusion

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About a year ago, the Future of Everything team was in New York taping a special episode on the innovation economy in front of a live audience, and today we're re-releasing it. We sat down with computer scientist Fei-Fei Li and economists Susan Athey and Neale Mahoney to dig into how AI is reshaping creativity, jobs, education, and public policy, and where it might take us next. It's a wide-ranging, energetic conversation. Whether you're thinking about how AI might reshape your own work, or you're just curious where some of the smartest people in tech and economics think this is all headed, this one's a great listen.
Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.
Episode Reference Links:
Stanford Profiles: Fei-Fei Li | Neale Mahoney | Susan Athey
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Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Russ Altman introduces this re-release of a live episode featuring Fei-Fei Li, Susan Athey, and Neale Mahoney on the future of the innovation economy.
(00:00:45) Defining the Innovation Economy
How new ideas, technologies, and commercialization are reshaping economic growth.
(00:02:13) AI as a General-Purpose Technology
What past technologies like electricity and personal computing can teach us about AI adoption.
(00:03:23) The Bottlenecks to Adoption
Why digitization, software costs, training, and organizational change can slow the spread of new technology.
(00:06:05) AI and the Labor Market
Why uncertainty about which jobs AI will disrupt makes social safety nets especially important.
(00:08:04) Augmenting Human Work
Why Fei-Fei Li sees AI as a tool for enhancing human capabilities rather than simply replacing jobs.
(00:11:17) Shaping Human-Centered Innovation
How innovation can be designed to complement human skills, creativity, and purpose.
(00:12:21) Universities and AI Innovation
How universities can help develop human-centered technologies and lower barriers to adoption.
(00:13:45) Government and the AI Transition
How public investment and policy could help workers adapt while expanding services like healthcare and childcare.
(00:15:50) Rethinking Education
Why AI may force a fundamental rethink of what and how students learn.
(00:17:18) Jobs, Adaptation, and Safety Nets
What history suggests about how economies adjust to technological disruption—and when policy intervention matters.
(00:18:33) AI Regulation and Innovation
How policymakers might balance technological progress with appropriate guardrails.
(00:21:57) Competition and Market Power
Why competition, open models, and the cost of AI access matter for innovation and economic opportunity.
(00:24:57) Economic Optimism
Why confidence in the American economy has declined and what might help restore it.
(00:26:40) Future In a Minute
Rapid-fire Q&A: hope for the future, education, robotics, AI accessibility, and the skills the panelists would learn next.
(00:30:24) Conclusion

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Hi everyone, it's your host Russ. As summer winds down and everyone heads into a new season, I wanted to share something a little different. Recently, I sat down with Matt Abrahams, host of the podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart and a lecturer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. We traded seats and I took the guest chair while Matt interviewed me about the future of communication in the age of AI. We’re excited to re-run this episode today and whether you're writing a pitch, prepping for a tough conversation, or just curious how AI is changing the way we talk to each other, this one's a great listen.
Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.
Episode Reference Links:
Stanford Profile: Russ Altman | Matt Abrahams
Learn more about Think Fast Talk Smart
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Russ Altman introduces this feed-drop episode from Think Fast, Talk Smart, where he joins Matt Abrahams to discuss communication in the age of AI.
(00:01:41) The Future of Communication
Why AI may amplify strong communication rather than replace authentic human messages.
(00:03:23) Using AI as a Communication Tool
How AI can help adjust language for different audiences, flag jargon, and improve clarity.
(00:04:00) AI as a Pre-Editor
How Russ uses large language models to critique and strengthen his writing before sharing it with colleagues.
(00:05:04) Structuring a Strong Proposal
How to align with your audience’s mission, define the problem, and clearly show the path forward.
(00:07:06) Making Complex Ideas Accessible
Why stories, analogies, and audience awareness help make technical information easier to understand.
(00:09:41) Preparing for Tough Moments
Why anticipating difficult concepts, questions, and conversations can make communication more effective.
(00:11:57) Asking Better Questions
Why specificity and strong follow-up questions can guide more meaningful conversations.
(00:12:51) Questions as Opportunities
How questions can communicate curiosity, engagement, and respect rather than criticism.
(00:15:01) Building Effective Teams
How shared goals, relationships, diversity, and clear roles support collaboration.
(00:17:55) Productive Conflict
How leaders can encourage rigorous disagreement without damaging trust.
(00:19:37) Finding People’s Passion
What hosting The Future of Everything taught Russ about understanding what motivates people.
(00:21:00) Looking to the Future
Why young people give Russ hope about what comes next.
(00:22:13) A Communicator to Admire
Why Russ credits his father with shaping his own approach to communication.
(00:23:06) Three Ingredients for Better Communication
Know your audience, be specific, and bring a sense of joy to the conversation.
(00:24:07) Conclusion



Connect With Us:
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