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!

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.

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.

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.

Everything we thought we knew about work—where we do it, when we do it, how we do it—has been turned on its head. Where is it all going, and is there a map to get us there? WorkLab is a new podcast from Microsoft that taps into data and research to guide you on the road ahead. Leaders and scientists share the company’s findings, and we’ll hear stories about how people and organizations are being transformed at this radical moment. Follow the show at microsoft.com/worklab.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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! 

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.  

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.