Best Itai Yanai Podcasts (2025)

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77 | Akiko Iwasaki and the art of creativity maintenance 40:04

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1M ago40:04

40:04

Akiko Iwasaki, a Yale professor and Howard Hughes Investigator, was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2024. Together, we reflect on how diverse backgrounds enrich research, allowing people to discover different things in the same data. Akiko explains how leading large collaborations requires managing expectations, not micr…

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76 | Can Google’s Co-scientist project give scientists superpowers? 39:44

2M ago39:44

39:44

To answer this question, we speak with Dr. Alan Karthikesalingam and Vivek Natarajan from Google DeepMind about their groundbreaking AI co-scientist project. Beyond their work at Google, Alan is an honorary lecturer in vascular surgery at Imperial College London, and Vivek teaches at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Together, we discuss…

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Training Elephants At Fort Worth Zoo 51:43

5M ago51:43

51:43

Christine Del Turco at The Fort Worth Zoo gave me a behind the scenes tour of the elephant facilities at the Fort Worth Zoo and then we sat down to chat about what it takes to get a multi-ton elephant to participate in its own health care. If you’ve ever had trouble giving your pet medicine, you might just pick up some tricks Shane News! My two-par…

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Medical Geography with Dr. Sadie Ryan 1:18:31

5M ago1:18:31

1:18:31

Dr. Sadie Ryan is professor of medical geography at the University of Florida, specializing in disease ecology, tropical conservation, human-wildlife interface, and geospatial models. https://geog.ufl.edu/faculty/ryan/ APPEX helps ensure that the vision of pandemic science is not simply about filling in knowledge gaps but is about framing how to me…

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75 | Eve Marder and how Recipe Science ruins creativity 33:35

5M ago33:35

33:35

Professor Eve Marder is a pioneering neuroscientist at Brandeis University. Drawing on decades of work with a small neural circuit in lobsters, she describes how discovery often emerges from intuition, puzzlement, and the courage to follow unexpected observations. Eve highlights the central role of personal tolerance for ambiguity in shaping a scie…

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Ants: Complexity & Cooperation With Noa Pinter-Wollman 1:29:24

6M ago1:29:24

1:29:24

This week comedian Shane Mauss stops by UCLA to learn all about ants! The Pinter-Wollman Lab studies how collective behavior emerges from individual variation and environmental pressures. We chat about how variation among ants shapes colony behavior, and how space influences social dynamics. This work informs conservation strategies and provides in…

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APPEX - Interdisciplinary Science with Nina Fefferman 1:19:52

6M ago1:19:52

1:19:52

Dr. Nina Fefferman’s research uses applied mathematics to study epidemiology, evolutionary and behavioral ecology, and self-organizing systems like networks. Her lab tackles a wide range of topics, from disease dynamics in human and animal populations to cybersecurity and the evolution of social behaviors. Nina Fefferman - Ecology & Evolutionary Bi…

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74 | Martin Schwartz and the importance of stupidity in science 29:19

6M ago29:19

29:19

Martin Schwartz, a professor at Yale, is known for his work on integrins and his influential essay “The importance of stupidity in scientific research”. He emphasizes that while learning science makes you feel smart, true scientific discovery often involves feeling stupid, because it means venturing into the unknown. We discuss how the ego can obst…

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Apocalypse Road Show With Athena Aktipis 1:20:16

7M ago1:20:16

1:20:16

Athena Aktipis is a cooperation theorist in the social psychology department of ASU. Her book “A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times” is a whole lot of fun packed into a pragmatic and optimistic examination of preparedness. Check out Athena's books and podcasts here https://www.athenaaktipis.org/ I’m ta…

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73 | Ethan Mollick and a million Einsteins in a server 38:02

7M ago38:02

38:02

With Ethan Mollick, professor at Wharton and author of the bestselling “Co-Intelligence”, we explore how generative AI tools like ChatGPT can enhance scientific creativity. Ethan emphasizes that AI excels at idea generation through sheer volume and recombination, outperforming most humans in many creativity tasks – though it does have odd obsession…

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72 | David Baker and the lab's communal brain 24:53

7M ago24:53

24:53

David Baker, who was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for designing novel proteins with AI, is a professor at the University of Washington. In this episode, he explains how he socially engineers his lab’s "communal brain", where all individuals function like neurons, densely interconnected to maximize idea generation. We explore the role o…

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Elephant Herpes With Fort Worth Zoo 1:18:12

8M ago1:18:12

1:18:12

Sarah Cannizzo joins comedian Shane Mauss for a memorable conversation about elephants and their health. Learn, laugh and subscribe! Edited by https://loganraykeith.com/ ‘InShane Evolution’ Artwork by Randal Roberts Plant activated vibes: https://www.mypurplelady.com/ Sarah Cannizzo, MA, VMD, Diplomate of the American College of Zoological Medicine…

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71 | Victor Ambros and the unique ways we perceive wonder 35:11

8M ago35:11

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Victor Ambros, newly awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of microRNA, is a developmental biologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In this episode, we explore improvisational science – the dynamic, collaborative process where researchers build on each other’s ideas using a "yes, and…" approach. We discuss the constant need …

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Amphibians And Toad IVF At Fort Worth Zoo 1:17:10

8M ago1:17:10

1:17:10

This week comedian Shane Mauss takes a field trip to the Fort Worth Zoo to talk to Senior Curator of Ectotherms Diane Barber and Reproductive Biologist Allison Julien all about toads, explosive reproduction, biodiversity, and why amphibians are the canary in the coalmine for the freshwater that humans and so much of earth’s life depend on. We’ll ha…

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Evolution Of The Blue Man Group With Chris Wink 1:15:15

9M ago1:15:15

1:15:15

Join comedian Shane Mauss as he talks with his friend Chris Wink about the early days of founding The Blue Man Group, getting inspired by vaudeville, and how his latest project Wink World combines art, science, philosophy, and play. Checkout Wink World in Vegas and Minneapolis https://winkworld.com/ Speaking of neon, how about add a little glow to …

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70 | Meghan O’Rourke on being the artist and their caretaker 45:15

9M ago45:15

45:15

Meghan O'Rourke, acclaimed author of The Invisible Kingdom, poet, and Yale professor, joins us to explore the parallels between creative writing and scientific discovery. She describes how deep immersion in a project attracts unexpected insights, and she introduces Night Poetry and Day Poetry, inspired by our concepts of Night Science and Day Scien…

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Bonobo Day with Primatologist Rachna Reddy 1:38:06

9M ago1:38:06

1:38:06

Valentine's Day is also International Bonobo Day! Bonobos have become known as the amorous, peace loving, hippies of the primate order. Has the story been a little overly simplified? This week, comedian Shane Mauss apes around with the hilarious and wonderful Rachna Reddy. Rachna is an anthropologist and primatologist at the University of Utah whos…

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Night Science With Itai Yanai 2:29:01

9M ago2:29:01

2:29:01

Nobel Prize biologist François Jacob about night science, "Day science employs reasoning that meshes like gears, where each step follows from the previous one. It is effective. It advances. But it proceeds only because night science exists. It is in the dark of night that science comes closest to its goals. It is there that it reveals itself, probi…

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Donkeys, Horses, And The Domestication Of Hooves With Sarah King 1:43:43

9M ago1:43:43

1:43:43

For thousands of years donkeys were an integral part of human life. Modern life has taken most of the burden off burros backs but what does the future hold for our equine companions? Shane takes a deep dive into ungulate evolution and contemplates how hooves ambled their way along various branches on the tree of life to figure out how donkeys even …

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69 | Keith Yamamoto and the freedom to fail 40:40

9M ago40:40

40:40

Keith Yamamoto, professor and science policy leader at UCSF, discusses with us how modern science became trapped in a system that discourages creative risk-taking. Keith contrasts academia's fear of failure with Silicon Valley's acceptance of it as just another day at the office. We also talk about Keith’s introduction of a new NIH grant category s…

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How Humans Survived Extinctions w/ Henry Gee (Senior Editor of Nature) 2:01:23

9M ago2:01:23

2:01:23

In his latest book, The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire, British paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and wry wordsmith Henry Gee examines humanity’s precarious journey on the tree of life. For millions of years, small groups of scrappy, upright apes have lived “one meal away from starvation and two meals away from extinction.” Yet, against…

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68 | Peter Godfrey-Smith and middle class science 33:43

10M ago33:43

33:43

Peter Godfrey-Smith, a Professor of the Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, explores with us the differences between creativity in science and philosophy. While philosophers speculate unconstrainedly, scientists must balance creative thinking with the need for empirical testing and within our fields’ paradigms – if you mention the “L…

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The Feast of The Shane 2:00:54

10M ago2:00:54

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Shane Mauss shares the origin story of his interest in life’s origin story. A hobby of watching nature documentaries turned into a full-blown science obsession that sent Shane’s comedy career careening off the traditional stand-up path and onto a unique journey of getting to use humor to explore the hidden underpinnings seeding the tree of life. Ha…

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67 | A hypothesis is a liability 39:51

11M ago39:51

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In this episode, Itai and Martin delve into the interplay between hypothesis-driven and exploratory research, drawing on insights from past guests of the Night Science Podcast. They discuss how being focused on a single hypothesis can prevent us from making discoveries, while emphasizing the value of open-ended exploratory analyses—often dismissed …

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66 | Michael Fischbach and the scientific decision tree 50:52

11M ago50:52

50:52

In this episode, Stanford professor Michael Fischbach discusses insights from his course on how to choose meaningful research problems. Highlights include: - Invest time in problem selection: Spend more time upfront selecting the right research problem. - Date ideas: Before settling on an idea, explore multiple alternatives without emotional attach…

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65 | James Kaufman and the art of creativity maintenance 30:35

12M ago30:35

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James Kaufman, Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut, discusses the psychological underpinnings of creative thinking with Itai & Martin. Together, we delve into the complex nature of creativity, exploring its roots as both a trait and a skill that can be nurtured. We examine the role of personality traits in creativit…

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64 | Robert Weinberg and the perils of being a Fachidiot 42:31

1y ago42:31

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MIT's Bob Weinberg is perhaps the world's most prominent cancer researcher. In this episode, Bob emphasizes that true innovation often comes from blending ideas from different fields – a synthesis that transcends the boundaries of one's primary area of research. We discuss the vital role of human interaction, with many scientific breakthroughs comi…

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63 | Manu Prakash and how the discovery changes you 44:49

1y ago44:49

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Manu Prakash is a professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, asking biological questions with insights from physics. His most widely known contribution is the FoldScope, a $1-microscope made from paper and a lens – 2 million copies of this have been distributed to would-be scientists around the world. In this episode, Manu emphasizes how s…

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62 | Dianne Newman and the visceral and intentional sides of science 40:09

1y ago40:09

40:09

Dianne Newman – a molecular microbiologist at CalTech – is a professor both in Biology and Geology. In this episode, she encourages young scientists to pursue questions to which they have a visceral connection, rather than following popular trends. In its search for fundamental truths guided by our inner biases and preferences, Dianne likens scient…

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61 | Tina Seelig on what to do with a really bad idea 29:31

1+ y ago29:31

29:31

Tina Seelig is Executive Director of the Knight-Hennessy-Scholars at Stanford University. She is widely known for teaching creativity courses and workshops with an entrepreneurial focus. In this episode, Tina emphasizes the importance of living in the problem space longer, taking time to challenge assumptions and reframe questions before rushing to…

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60 | Venki Ramakrishnan and the secrets of doing science over tea 33:53

1+ y ago33:53

33:53

Venki Ramakrishnan shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for uncovering the structure of the ribosome. He runs a lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. In this episode, Venki emphasizes the importance of enjoying the scientific process itself, not just aiming for major discoveries. He describes his creativity as a …

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59 | Jennifer Oyler-Yaniv and the point of creative frustration 36:04

1+ y ago36:04

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Jennifer Oyler-Yaniv is a professor working on the immune system at Harvard’s Medical School. In this episode, we discuss with her how she teaches creativity in her course for PhD students. We explore the emotional roller coaster ride of research projects, typically culminating in the point of creative frustration, where we get stuck and are tempte…

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58 | Guy Yanai on Pentimenti 24:01

1+ y ago24:01

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Guy Yanai is a painter whose work is displayed in many public and private collections across the US, Europe, and Asia, including, for example, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. His distinctive painting style blends modernist, abstract tendencies together with references to everyday life and popular culture. Coincidentally, Guy is also Itai’s brother. Tog…

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57 | George Church and shooting for the stars 36:18

1+ y ago36:18

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George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, leads a large research group at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. A pioneer in the fields of personalized genomics and synthetic biology, he has co-founded over 50 biotech companies. In 2017, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the …

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56 | Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz lights a candle for science 39:47

1+ y ago39:47

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Prof. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz directs research labs at both CalTech in the US and the University of Cambridge in England. Magdalena is one of the world’s leading developmental biologists, who has been recognized by the 2023 Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize and Science magazin's People's Vote for Scientific Breakthrough of the Year in 2016. In this e…

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55 | Isaac Newton and a new kind of science 26:33

1+ y ago26:33

26:33

Night Science – coming up with novel ways to interpret the physical world – is as old as philosophy. In contrast, Day Science – empirical evidence as the sole argument for truth – was invented only in the 1700s, championed by the groundbreaking work of Isaac Newton. In the April 1st, 2024, episode of the Day Science Podcast, Sir Isaac looks back on…

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54 | Bo Xia and a tale of tails 31:35

1+ y ago31:35

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Bo Xia is a Junior Fellow at Harvard and a Principal Investigator at the Broad Institute. During his PhD with Itai, he suffered a painful tailbone injury that led to an obsession with this vestigial organ and its origins in human evolution. In this out-of-the-ordinary episode, we talk about this specific science project: how did Bo, with Itai’s hel…

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53 | Todd Golub and bottom-up creativity 35:57

1+ y ago35:57

35:57

Prof. Todd Golub, the Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, has made important contributions to cancer research. In this episode, he argues that creativity is the greatest hallmark of a successful scientist, and he tells us about his artist-in-residence program at the Broad. As its director, he aims to hire researchers who look like t…

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52 | Sean B. Carroll – he told some good stories 39:03

1+ y ago39:03

39:03

Sean Carroll is a world-renowned scientist, author, educator, and an Oscar-nominated film producer. Sean sees storytelling as the key to all he does. Similar to how musicians get inspiration by listening to other people’s music, Sean attributes his own creativity to his insatiable habit of reading about other people’s science – that’s how he “ferti…

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51 | Nigel Goldenfeld and the jazz of impossible problems 39:13

2y ago39:13

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Nigel Goldenfeld is the Chancellor's Distinguished Professor in Physics at the University of California at San Diego. In this episode, he talks with us about how research is an art form, and how he tries to help graduate students make the transition from being a “classical musician”, where the goal is to faithfully reproduce every note supplied by …

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50 | It takes two to think 23:31

2y ago23:31

23:31

Despite the variety of creative approaches practiced by different scientists, one tried-and-true though often overlooked — trick for generating new ideas stands out. It may sound trivial, yet it is as reliable as it is simple: talk to someone. By talking with other people, we not only pool the information or ideas that each of us individually lacks…

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49 | Rich White on living on the edge cases 43:56

2y ago43:56

43:56

Rich White studies cancer as a professor at Oxford University. Rich is not only a brilliant physician-scientist but also a great friend of Itai Yanai, one of the two Night Science hosts. In this episode, Rich talks about how often the process that led to a particular result can be more interesting than the result itself – something that is true not…

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48 | Carolyn Bertozzi and a long game called science 40:47

2y ago40:47

40:47

Carolyn Bertozzi is a Professor at Stanford University. In 2022, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In this episode we talk about how the process of science is unstructured, so you don’t know when and where the next idea is going to come – sometimes even at the supermarket checkout line. For Carolyn, science is a long game, where one per…

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47 | Stephen Quake and the Creative Network 35:09

2y ago35:09

35:09

Stephen Quake is a Stanford University professor and the Head of Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Among his many inventions are DNA sequencing methods for non-invasive prenatal testing. In this episode, Steve tells us about his tricks for the creative scientific process, including the surprising usefulness of jetlag, the role of gen…

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46 | John Mattick and doing what your mother taught you 30:59

2y ago30:59

30:59

John Mattick is Professor of RNA Biology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. For decades, he has been on a mission to show that the large portions of the human genome that many scientists consider useless "junk" instead have important regulatory functions. In this episode, he tells us that his creative process involves always…

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45 | Peter Ratcliffe on being the Master of Daydreams 35:17

2y ago35:17

35:17

Peter J. Ratcliffe shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on oxygen sensing in animal cells. He directs research institutes in London and Oxford. In this episode, he reveals the interplay between dissociation – daydreaming – and interaction with colleagues as a major source of his scientific creativity. He emphasizes tha…

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44 | Christina Curtis and keeping the faith in the process 42:07

2y ago42:07

42:07

Christina Curtis is a Professor of Medicine and the Director of Artificial Intelligence and Cancer Genomics at Stanford University’s Cancer Institute. Among her many achievements is the conception of the “Big Bang Theory” of tumor biology. In this episode, she tells us how not being biased by assumptions of what we know has been very helpful in her…

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43 | Daniel Dennett’s intuition pumps 41:04

2y ago41:04

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Daniel Dennett, Professor at Tufts University, may be the most important living philosopher, tackling the biggest questions around: what is consciousness, do we have free will, how does evolutionary adaptation occur? In this episode, Dan tells us about some of his ‘intuition pumps’ - tools that are as indispensable for thinking as hammers and saws …

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42 | Howard Stone on how to tilt your head for discovery 39:56

2y ago39:56

39:56

Howard Stone is a Professor of Engineering at Princeton. His research explores how fluid dynamics can help to understand diverse systems, from bacterial biofilms to the earth’s interior. In this episode, Howard explains how a lot of important, low-hanging fruit are at the interface between disciplines. Howard is most creative when he debates phenom…

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41 | Prisca Liberali and the junkies of discovery 32:35

2y ago32:35

32:35

Prisca Liberali is a senior group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Switzerland. In this episode, Prisca tells us how her creative thinking thrives on recursive thinking – going deeper and deeper into a problem from different angles. Prisca also deliberately uses carefully chosen conferences to discuss and to dev…