Utility + Function

Jill Neimark is a veteran science journalist and author of adult and children's fiction. She is a former contributing editor at Discover Magazine, she also written for Scientific American, Science, Nautilus, Aeon, The New York Times, NPR, Quartz, and Psychology Today. She published the adult nonfiction book, coauthored with bioethicist Stephen Post, PhD, Why Good Things Happen to Good People. She has also written five children’s books and one novel, Bloodsong. "Humans truly are part god part devil," - Jill Neimark.  The theme of this episode is resilience.  Jill Neimark invites us to marvel at nature.  She speaks of the failure of the human species to quell overpopulation and overconsumption in the face of climate change,  and the flaws that snag us despite our talent for planning and foresight.  She also delves into the potential post traumatic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, as well as the way giving is written into our DNA--and how genetic hardwiring contributes to our ability to face adversity as a species. 

Physicist and musician Stephon Alexander has straddled the worlds of theoretical physics and jazz music over the last two decades. He works on the connection between the smallest and largest entities in the universe pushing Einstein’s theory of curved space-time to extremes, beyond the big bang with subatomic phenomena. Alexander is a Professor of Physics at Brown University, with previous appointments at Stanford University, Imperial College, Penn State, Dartmouth College and Haverford College. Alexander is a specialist in the field of string cosmology, where the physics of superstrings are applied to address longstanding questions in cosmology. In 2001, he co-invented the model of inflation based on higher dimensional hypersurfaces in string theory called D-Branes. In such models the early universe emerged from the destruction of a higher dimensional D-brane which ignites a period of rapid expansion of space often referred to as cosmic inflation. In his bestselling book, The Jazz of Physics, Alexander revisits the ancient interconnection between music and the evolution of astrophysics and the laws of motion. He explores new ways music, in particular jazz music, mirrors modern physics, such as quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the physics of the early universe. He also discusses ways that innovations in physics have been and can be inspired from “improvisational logic” exemplified in Jazz performance and practice. Alexander also recently served as a scientific advisor for the Walt Disney film A Wrinkle In Time, directed by Ava DuVernay, and currently serves as President of the National Society of Black Physicists (NSPB).

Gary Marcus is a scientist, best-selling author, and entrepreneur. He is Founder and CEO of Robust.AI, and was Founder and CEO of Geometric Intelligence, a machine learning company acquired by Uber in 2016. He is the author of five books, including The Algebraic Mind, Kluge, The Birth of the Mind, and The New York Times best seller Guitar Zero, as well as editor of The Future of the Brain and The Norton Psychology Reader. He has published extensively in fields ranging from human and animal behavior to neuroscience, genetics, linguistics, evolutionary psychology and artificial intelligence, often in leading journals such as Science and Nature, and is perhaps the youngest Professor Emeritus at NYU. His newest book, co-authored with Ernest Davis, Rebooting AI: Building Machines We Can Trust aims to shake up the field of artificial intelligence

Anima Anandkumar is Director of Machine Learning at NVIDIA and Bren professor at Caltech. Anima has led research in tensor-algebraic methods, large-scale learning, deep learning, probabilistic models, and non-convex optimization, among others. She is the youngest named professor at Caltech, the highest honor bestowed to an individual faculty. She is part of the World Economic Forum's Expert Network consisting of leading experts from academia, business, government, and the media. She is the recipient of several awards including Alfred. P. Sloan Fellowship, NSF Career Award, Young investigator awards from the Air Force and Army research offices, Faculty fellowships from Microsoft, Google and Adobe, and several best paper awards. Anima Anandkumar is also deeply passionate about democratizing AI and eliminating bias in the data we use to build AI systems as well as the other subtle ways bias infiltrates research, device-building, and industry. She is spearheading important research and groundbreaking work that is changing our model for AI and its impact on the world we all live in.

Pamela McCorduck has authored and co-authored several books, including the iconic Machines Who Think, her personal, original, and groundbreaking inquiry into the history and possibilities of AI, first published in 1979. Through her writing, Pamela has worked alongside Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, Ed Feigenbaum, and other seminal figures of artificial intelligence. McCorduck has also consulted for a wide range of firms and other organizations in the high technology, financial, and transportation sectors. She served on a panel to advise the National Academy of Engineering and has co-authored studies on women in information technology and women in design.

Joseph Dominick Pistone (born September 17, 1939), also known by his undercover alias Donnie Brasco, is an American former FBI agent who worked undercover between September 1976 and July 1981, as part of an infiltration primarily into the Bonanno crime family, and to a lesser extent the Colombo crime family, two of the Five Families of the Mafia in New York City. Pistone was a pioneer in long-term undercover work, and the evidence he collected led to over 200 indictments and over 100 convictions of Mafia members. Pistone's work later helped convince the FBI that using undercover agents in lieu of relying exclusively on informants was a crucial tool in law enforcement Pistone detailed his undercover experience in his 1988 book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, the basis of the 1997 film about his life Donnie Brasco.

Najee Dorsey is an Artist, a Collector, and the CEO / Founder of Black Art In America. Najee's work has been exhibited in multiple museum shows, including his first major solo exhibition at the Columbus Museum in Columbus Georgia, entitled: Leaving Mississippi -- Reflections on Heroes and Folklore in 2014. In addition, Dorsey has shown his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions. He has been the recipient of awards that include a 2006 Patrons Purchase Award from the Polk Museum of Art. BLACK ART IN AMERICA™ (BAIA) is the leading online portal and social network focused on African-American Art with visitors from over 100 countries visiting our site each month and about half a million visitors to our social media pages for Black Art In America™ and Do You Basel?™. Black Art In America™, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter comprise our online virtual network and resource. BAIA amplifies thought-provoking commentary on today's visual arts news from a variety of perspectives, including breaking news, gallery meet-ups, market trends, and profiling leading (and emerging) Black visual artists in the country. In addition, BAIA offers stories about collecting and provides a weekly eNewsletter that helps art enthusiasts worldwide keep up to date on the changing and forever evolving Black visual arts market. Visit and join www.blackartinamerica.com

Stephen Wolfram is a scientist, physicist, and businessman best known for his work in computer science, mathematics, and theoretical physics. Over more than four decades, Wolfram has been a pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking—and has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Based on both his practical and theoretical thinking, Wolfram has emerged as an authority on the implications of computation and artificial intelligence for society and the future, and the importance of computational language as a bridge between the capabilities of computation and human objectives. He is the creator of Mathematica, the creator of Wolfram|Alpha, and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. He is the author of Cellular Automata And Complexity, Adventures of a Computational Explorer, The Mathematica Book, How to Teach Computational Thinking, On the Quest for Computable Knowledge, A New Kind of Science, An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language, and most recently, Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People.

Tom X. Lee, MD, founder of Galileo Health, discusses the importance of quality and accessible healthcare during the pandemic. They explore adapting to remote work and virtual healthcare, utilizing medical data, integrating technology into healthcare, and the future of healthcare.

Artist and director Smriti Keshari’s work covers a spectrum of the moving image and explores under-represented themes and experiences. Smriti is known for her acclaimed film, the bomb, which has been shown throughout the world and was heralded as a stunning approach to the plea for nuclear disarmament. She is currently working on a five-part multi-media series that delves into the ethical questions surrounding Artificial Intelligence. Her film within this series film debuts this summer. In this interview, Keshari discusses the artist’s role as conduit or translator and the ability to transcend philosophical questions through creation.