

The Stephen Wolfram Podcast
Wolfram Research
Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Language; the author of A New Kind of Science; and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. Over the course of nearly four decades, he has been a pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking—and has been responsible for many discoveries, inventions and innovations in science, technology and business.
On his podcast, Stephen discusses topics ranging from the history of science to the future of civilization and ethics of AI.
On his podcast, Stephen discusses topics ranging from the history of science to the future of civilization and ethics of AI.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 5, 2022 • 1h 40min
What We've Learned from NKS Chapter 5: Two Dimensions and Beyond
In this episode of "What We've Learned from NKS", Stephen Wolfram is counting down to the 20th anniversary of A New Kind of Science with a chapter retrospective in an ongoing livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/12aAqLklA

Apr 1, 2022 • 1h 32min
Business & Innovation Q&A for Young Entrepreneurs & Others (April 28, 2021)
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about business and innovation as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-business-qa
Questions include: How do you incentivize teams working on subcomponents of larger systems that don't directly impact p&l. - Are you optimistic about the economic future, medium, long term? - Do you think computers will ever be able to become more efficient allocators than free markets? - How would you go about mapping the EdTech industry? I know people building products, doing private equity deals, doing consulting, and teachers using products. Nobody knows what's out there! - Do you think a UBI based economy is coming soon? What are you thoughts about UBI? - How would the bot even evaluate value of the labor? seems super complicated -Why was bell labs so successful? Do you think it can be copied? - I've always wanted to know how to start an R&D lab with only starting out with ideas. For example, Xprize has a carbon capture prize. Looking at a whale's baleen. How feasible is it to have "baleen" filters on container ships that filter carbon from the oceans as the ship moves throughout the ocean. when the ships dock. filters can be swapped out and the carbon can be collected and turned into building materials or "goop" for 3d printers. just a quick thought. - Based on your experience leading a largely remote organization, how do you track and reward the value that team members contribute? - should have smashed 80% of the awards to increase the value of the 20% - How has your company evolved, relative to your expectations when you started it? And, how successful is it in achieving your goals, say out of 10? - Any thoughts on team building / a group becoming a team? - Have you had any failures after your PhD? - If we compare the UK to the US, why does the latter seem much better than the former in terms of developing business ideas from academia to industry? - Maybe time to reflect and present useful things to people, that they're not using after years&years and maybe not let them wait another 20years. - Your record keeping seems incredibly robust. Has that always been the case? What inspired its structure?

Mar 29, 2022 • 2h 23min
What We've Learned from NKS Chapter 4: Systems Based on Numbers
In this episode of "What We've Learned from NKS", Stephen Wolfram is counting down to the 20th anniversary of A New Kind of Science with a chapter retrospective in an ongoing livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/12aAqLklA

Mar 25, 2022 • 1h 23min
Stephen Wolfram Q&A, For Kids (and others) [April 23, 2021]
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa
Questions include: If there's a way to create climate change, that must mean there's a way to reverse it? - Feel like the greenhouse effect was based of Venus's greenhouse effect. - Carbon capture research is all the focus, Isn't this just kicking the can down the road? The carbon is stored but not converted so what is the real benefit? - Is climate change necessarily bad? As in, what equilibrium we may reach after the instability has stabilized, would that new equilibrium necessarily be worse than the one we have enjoyed for a while? - But if we do that, do we really understand the effect well enough?I I mean you don't know if more plankton is good for carbon dioxide situation, but maybe it may make something worse too - Think how lucky human beings are - Do you think there are life forms out there where their spectrum of visible light is totally different than ours? - Do you think there's a plateau we must break through for space exploration to be more feasible, or is our progress as is good enough? - Dr. Wolfram, thank you for your time! "Sustainable" energy is a major issue these days, but I'm skeptical that renewables like solar and wind can meet growing demand. What are your thoughts on fission and gen IV reactor technology? - We could study moon rocks in greater detail, and then after that, we can do it again.

Mar 22, 2022 • 1h 44min
What We've Learned from NKS Chapter 3: The World of Simple Programs
In this episode of "What We've Learned from NKS", Stephen Wolfram is counting down to the 20th anniversary of A New Kind of Science with a chapter retrospective in an ongoing livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/12aAqLklA

Mar 18, 2022 • 1h 17min
History of Science and Technology Q&A (April 21, 2021)
Stephen Wolfram answers questions from his viewers about the history of science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa
Questions include: Stephen begins the stream - Hi Stephen. Is there some particular scientific discovery that was "forgotten" and later rediscovered by someone else, whose importance you would have liked to be recognized the first time? - How did theory of computational complexity emerge and is there research in that field that you find particularly promising? - Has the Voynich manuscript ever been decoded? - Does a proof not exist to show that NP cannot be done in P, is that the way to solve the P vs NP problem assuming if P is a subset of NP? - Could a computer randomly generate and test all algorithms from a hypergraph of all possible parse tree branches of the axioms similar to the physics project? - Have you done any work with VR? - A cool VR website would a digital Louvre where you enter and walk around looking at NFTs (for those into NFTs) and other type of exhibits

Mar 15, 2022 • 1h 53min
What We've Learned from NKS Chapter 2: The Crucial Experiment
In this episode of "What We've Learned from NKS", Stephen Wolfram is counting down to the 20th anniversary of A New Kind of Science with a chapter retrospective in an ongoing livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/12aAqLklA

Mar 11, 2022 • 1h 30min
Stephen Wolfram Q&A, For Kids (and others) [April 16, 2021]
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series.
Questions include: What are some of the NKS implications for medicine? - What's the minimum amount of DNA pairs that is not "obviously basic" and could perform universal computation? Would this be the lower bound for some heuristic of complexity of life? - Is there any fundamental computational boundary to a super-intelligent AI doctor capable of connecting all the medical specialties? - Why are we are not prioritizing research in longevity? - What makes HeLa cells "immortal" and how common are they in humans? Or was Henrietta the only person ever to have "immortal" cells? Do other species have cells like HeLa cells? - Why can't we reproduce cell membranes? Aren't they made up of proteins? - How do you organize/prepare for a talk? - How many hours should a scientist work per day? - Why isn't nuclear power used more and is there a way to make it smaller and safer so that it can be used like portable power generators? - What do you feel is the place of philosophy in modern science?
See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Mar 8, 2022 • 2h 37min
What We've Learned from NKS Chapter 1: The Foundations of a New Kind of Science
In this episode of "What We've Learned from NKS", Stephen Wolfram is counting down to the 20th anniversary of A New Kind of Science with a chapter retrospective in an ongoing livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/12aAqLklA

Mar 4, 2022 • 1h 27min
Stephen Wolfram Q&A, For Kids (and others) [April 9, 2021]
Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series. See the full Q&A video playlist: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa
Questions include: Does Wolfram believe in supersymmetry? - Do the particles mass vary or are they exactly the same all the time? - Gravitational mass always the same in the history of the universe? Is the inertia mass always the same, how does that work? - What is category theory? - Is it possible to make a lens/ camera for WiFi? What would differ from a regular CMOS digital camera. Can there be a 'pinhole' WiFi camera? - What would happen if you live streamed a video from a vessel that is going near the speed of light? Would it be slowed down? - Whats up with the muons discovered?