Podcasts · Science · Technology

Babbage from The Economist

The Economist

11 episodes

Babbage is The Economist’s weekly podcast on science and technology—named after Charles Babbage, the grandfather of computing. Explore the science changing the way we live from AI to genetics, particle physics and space travel with Alok Jha. This award-winning podcast features in-depth interviews with top scientists and special episodes investigating wellness trends. Published every Wednesday.

More about the show

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Episodes

  1. Trailer: Tocqueville Road Trip

    · 3:27 · Trailer

    When Alexis de Tocqueville visited America from France in 1831 he saw a new kind of society. Not just a country, but an idea that would change the world. His book “Democracy in America” was a big influence on later…

  2. The bomb (part 1): were nuclear weapons inevitable?

    · 44 min

    Where did the world’s most devastating weapon come from? In a four-part series, we go behind the scenes at America's nuclear laboratories to understand how a scientific-mystery story about the ingredients of matter led…

  3. AI and health part one: DrGPT will see you now

    · 46 min

    Artificial intelligence is already making its mark in health care—but new, bigger, models promise to improve how patients access services, help doctors spot diseases faster and transform how medical research is done.…

  4. Babbage: Teens and their screens

    · 42 min

    Ever since there have been smartphones and social media, there have been concerns about how they might be affecting children. Over the past decade, doctors have seen a decline in mental health in the young in much of…

  5. Babbage: The science that built the AI revolution—part one

    · 43 min

    What is intelligence? In the middle of the 20th century, the inner workings of the human brain inspired computer scientists to build the first “thinking machines”. But how does human intelligence actually relate to the…

  6. Babbage: The hunt for dark matter

    · 44 min

    Dark matter is thought to make up around a quarter of the universe, but so far it has eluded detection by all scientific instruments. Scientists know it must exist because of the ways galaxies move and it also explains…

  7. Babbage: Sam Altman and Satya Nadella on their vision for AI

    · 45 min

    OpenAI and Microsoft are leaders in generative artificial intelligence (AI). OpenAI has built GPT-4, one of the world’s most sophisticated large language models (LLMs) and Microsoft is injecting those algorithms into…

  8. Babbage: Science book club

    · 42 min

    Books are the original medium for communicating science to the masses. In a holiday special, producer Kunal Patel asks Babbage’s family of correspondents about the books that have inspired them in their careers as…

  9. Babbage: Fei-Fei Li on how to really think about the future of AI

    · 39 min

    A year ago, the public launch of ChatGPT took the world by storm and it was followed by many more generative artificial intelligence tools, all with remarkable, human-like abilities. Fears over the existential risks…

  10. Babbage: How to avoid a battery shortage

    · 45 min

    In the coming decades, electric vehicles will dominate the roads and renewables will provide energy to homes. But for the green transition to be successful, unprecedented amounts of energy storage is needed. Batteries…

  11. Babbage: Trailer

    · 2:00 · Trailer

    Babbage is our weekly podcast on science and technology, named after Charles Babbage—a 19th-century polymath and grandfather of computing. Host Alok Jha talks to our correspondents about the innovations, discoveries…

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