The Edge Episode 16: I Once Was Blind, But Now?
How is it possible to be blind and able to see at the same time? In this episode of The Edge, we explore blindsight, a bizarre neurological condition that may offer clues about where consciousness comes from and why we have it.
Listen to episode 16The Edge Episode 15: I’m in Love With a Robot
It’s not easy coming up with the perfect opening line on Tinder. Artificial intelligence is already helping us compose emails and complete sentences, so why stop there? Laura and Leah talk to the founder of Keys about the possibilities—and dangers—of letting robots do the talking for us.
Listen to episode 15The Edge Episode 14: Blockchain for the People
You hear about blockchain everywhere: social media, the news, the guy next door. Laura and Leah talk to Medha Kothari, a Berkeley alum and founder of she256, a non-profit promoting diversity in blockchain, about what blockchain is and why it has the potential to be a fairer technology than the ones we’ve already built.
Listen to episode 14The Edge Episode 12: 2021, A Space Hotel Odyssey
Since the first human left Earth’s atmosphere in 1961, few earthlings—and even fewer private citizens—have had the opportunity to “boldly go” there. But, with new advancements from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and other spaceflight companies, wealthy tourists could soon be booking rooms in hotels in outer space. The rise of space tourism raises some new, sometimes uncomfortable, questions.
Listen to episode 12The Edge Episode 11: A Completed Life
Five years after 29-year-old, terminally ill Brittany Maynard makes national news by choosing to end her life early, medically assisted death continues to face enormous legal and social barriers. And yet public support of the practice is high. As life-expectancy and palliative care improve, we face new questions: Under what circumstances are people allowed to choose when and how they die?
Listen to episode 11The Edge Episode 10: A Shroom of One’s Own
Half a century after the counterculture movement swept through the Bay Area and “mind altering substances” were banished from the laboratory, researchers at the new Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics are reviving a long-buried field of research. Is this the beginning of a psychedelic renaissance?
Listen to episode 10The Edge Episode 9: You Say Couch Potato, I Say Athlete
How did video gaming, or esports, make it from your parents’ basement to the big leagues? Laura and Leah discuss with student esport “athletes,” an administrator, and a team owner.
Listen to episode 9The Edge Episode 8: Control-Alt-Meat
After an unsettling encounter with a turkey, Laura resolves to eat less meat and takes Leah on a journey through the alternative meat industry. Will real, flesh and blood meat be obsolete in 15 years, as one industry leader suggests?
ListenThe Edge Episode 7: Hey Siri, Write Me a Poem
When a Berkeley student launches an AI-generated blog that goes viral, Leah and Laura wonder if robots will soon replace us all. Will the journalists, novelists, and poets of the future be robots? What does this mean for art?
Listen to episode 7The Edge Episode 6: Are Cities Over?
As reopenings stall and some companies extend work-from-home indefinitely, Leah and Laura wonder what the future of cities looks like. Will all the yuppies flee to the countryside? Will mom-and-pop retail survive?
ListenThe Edge Episode 5: Can You Make Your Baby Glow?
Can you pick your baby’s gender? What about their IQ? And what’s to stop people from editing their babies’ genes to make them glow? Laura and Leah talk to UC Berkeley-trained researcher Mark DeWitt about a controversial case of human genetic engineering.
ListenThe Edge Episode 4: That Manhole Is Now a Maintenance Hole
After the Berkeley city council renames “manholes” to “maintenance holes” to avoid gender references, Laura and Leah decide to find out how language changes with the times.
Listen
