241. Gary F. Marcus with Ted Chiang How to Make AI Work for Us (And Not the Other Way Around)
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Artificial intelligence is an actively surging field in today’s digital landscape, and as each new AI interface reaches the public it throws into sharper resolution that all the big tech players are getting involved. And quickly. But where are the roots of this rapidly expanding industry’s interests? How does AI impact individuals, established industries, and the future of our society if it continues to grow faster than it is critically examined? In his newest book Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works For Us, author and scientist Gary F. Marcus uses his expertise in...
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240. Amorina Kingdon: Sing Like Fish – How Sound Rules Life Underwater
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
The ocean has proven endlessly mysterious and fascinating to all manner of people across the globe, but for centuries true knowledge of the depths was simply out of reach. As modern technologies advance, science has debunked much once held to be true – including the idea of the “silent world” of the ocean. What was once thought to be a muffled marine landscape with little to no perceptible sounds has now been revealed to be a complex interplay of aquatic acoustics. In her debut book Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, science journalist Amorina Kingdon turns up the...
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239. Lynne Peeples with Bill Radke: Shining New Light on Our Rest and Routines
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Whether it’s staying up late in front of the screens or waking up before dawn for that early morning flight – it’s easy to tell when something big has thrown off our routines. But what about the little things that add up over the course of a day, a week, or our lives overall? How do small adjustments to our daily practices affect our long-term relationship with the balance between our bodies and the busy technology-driven world we live in? In her new book, author and science journalist Lynne Peeples explores how our often hectic habits can impact our physical, mental, and social...
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238. Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert with Daniela Rosner: The Secret Life of Data
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
With tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon, Seattle will be instrumental in the future of data and its effects on society. What are the long-term consequences of humanity’s recent rush toward digitizing, storing, and analyzing every piece of data about ourselves and the world we live in? How will data surveillance, digital forensics, and AI pose new threats––and opportunities? In their new book, The Secret Life of Data, authors Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert explore what might happen with all the data that we collect. They build on this basic premise: no matter what form data...
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237. Lawrence Ingrassia with Robert Merry: A Lethal Legacy — Genetic Predisposition to Cancer
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
One instance of grief can be difficult enough to cope with, but for Lawrence Ingrassia, losing multiple family members was not only devastating but perplexing. Typical discussions surrounding inheritance may include heirlooms or estates — not rare tumors in the cheeks of toddlers, as was the case for Ingrassia’s two-year-old nephew. After he lost his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew to different types of cancer, Ingrassia was unsure whether his family’s generational heartbreak was merely misfortune or if there was some other cause. In his book A Fatal Inheritance: How a...
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236. Zoë Schlanger with Brooke Jarvis: The Light Eaters
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Did you know that plants can hear sounds? And have a social life? Science writer Zoë Schlanger shares even more remarkable plant talents in her latest book, The Light Eaters, illustrating the tremendous biological creativity it takes to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. They communicate. They recognize their own kin. Schlanger immerses into the world of being a plant, into its drama and complexity. Scientists have learned that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a...
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235. Elaine Lin Hering with Ruchika Tulshyan: Learning to Speak Up in a World That Wants You to Stay Quiet
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Can you think of occasions where you wanted to say something, but couldn’t? Perhaps you stopped yourself out of fear, or due to outside pressures. Having a seat at the table doesn’t necessarily mean that your voice is welcome. A new book is aiming to examine the influence of silence and offer ways that we can begin to dismantle it to find our voices at home and work to shift the paradigm. In Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully author Elaine Lin Hering explores the difficulty that can come with speaking up, especially when there may be...
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234. Anjali Nayar and Dr. Sean Gibbons: Hack Your Health — The Secrets of Your Gut
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Your gut microbiome consists of trillions of microbiota and is a critical health determinant, affecting your immune system, mood, energy level, and much more. As a scientific field, microbiome research is new to the scene, but the intricate relationship between our gut and our overall health is clear – and getting clearer. In April, Netflix started streaming Hack Your Health, an informative documentary about the gut microbiome, gut health, and the science of eating. In this collaborative event between Town Hall Seattle and the Institute for Systems Biology, Hack Your...
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233. Sabrina Sholts with Dr. Julianne Meisner: Pandemics and Human Potential
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
The very fact of being human makes us vulnerable to pandemics, but it also gives us the power to save ourselves. The COVID-19 pandemic most likely won’t be our last—that is the uncomfortable but all-too-timely message of Sabrina Sholts’ new book, The Human Disease. Traveling through history and around the globe to examine how and why pandemics are an inescapable threat of our own making, Sholts draws on dozens of disciplines—from medicine, epidemiology, and microbiology to anthropology, sociology, ecology, and neuroscience—as well as a unique expertise in public education about...
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232. Dori Gillam and Mack McCoy: Hello Old Lovers Wherever You Are!
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Can you find lifelong love with an AARP card in your wallet? Dori (72) and Mack (69) did, and they’ve got a lot to say on the subject! Join them for a candid chat where they dish on discovering love later in life. Balancing time for each other, family, friends, and furry companions? Yep. Talking about merging households? Yep. Starting a family? Probably not going to happen. People in their third act of life tend to seek more than mere flesh and flash, instead craving depth and maturity. Ignorance of each other’s previous lives provides the bliss of having an abundance of stories,...
info_outlineFrom the very creation of the planet to the present day, water has always been central to life on Earth. And while the amount of water on our planet has not changed, it has, in fact, changed the world. It has shaped our very existence.
Renowned scientist Peter Gleick sheds light on water’s long history in his book, The Three Ages of Water. Gleick recounts how water has developed civilizations and empires, and driven centuries of advances in science and technology — from agriculture to aqueducts, steam power to space exploration — and progress in health and medicine.
But the achievements that have propelled humanity forward also brought consequences like unsustainable water use, ecological destruction, and global climate change, that now threaten to send us into a new dark age. In Gleick’s research, he has found that billions of people today do not have access to clean water or sanitation. The scarcity of this fixed resource, Gleick believes, is directly linked to the growing violence and conflicts around the globe.
Gleick says that we must change our ways, and quickly, to usher in a new age of water for the benefit of everyone. Drawing from the lessons of our past, Gleick charts a path toward a sustainable future for water and the planet. While water may be a fixed resource, Gleick believes we have the power to change the trajectory of the planet’s future by understanding its role in today’s current climate.
Peter Gleick is perhaps the world’s most widely known and cited water expert. Educated at Yale and Berkeley, he went on to cofound the Pacific Institute, the leading independent research group devoted to reimagining water for a changing world. He is a scientist by training, winner of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award, and an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2018 he was awarded the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization. He lives in Berkeley, California.
