Science Friday

In recent months, AI music has moved from novelty act into the realm of listenable music. For the first time, AI-generated songs from AI-generated artists are on the Billboard top 100 charts, and more musicians are coming out saying they use AI in their songwriting process. 

Is this just another tech upgrade to the music-making process or does it signal something bigger in the industry? To investigate, SciFri producer and musician Dee Peterschmidt talks to journalist Kristin Robinson, who covers AI in the music industry, and Laurie Spiegel, an electronic and algorithmic music pioneer.

Guests:

Kristin Robinson is a senior writer for Billboard, based in Los Angeles, CA.

Laurie Spiegel is a composer and programmer based in New York, NY

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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March Madness is almost upon us, which means basketball arenas across the country will be filled with the thunderous roar of fans and the surprisingly loud squeaks of basketball shoes. At his first NBA game, physicist Adel Djellouli was surprised by the constant noise from the court and wondered, why do basketball shoes squeak? Turns out, the physics of a squeak involves lightning bolts and earthquakes.

Host Flora Lichtman talks with Djellouli about his research and the joy of investigating seemingly simple questions.

Guest: Dr. Adel Djellouli is an experimental physicist at Harvard University.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Skepticism around public health policy, experts and institutions has left some researchers asking basic questions about their role and relationship with the public. Can public health be done better? 

Epidemiologist Erica Walker has a perspective on just that. She started off studying noise pollution, found her science wasn’t serving people as she hoped, and pivoted her approach in an effort to be more useful. Flora sits down with Walker to hear the story. 

Guest: Dr. Erica Walker is an assistant professor of epidemiology and director of the Community Noise Lab at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Ever heard an alcohol ad that tells you to “please drink responsibly”? Or a gambling ad that warns, "when the fun stops, stop”? Or been urged to reduce your carbon footprint?    

The message is basically the same: These products and activities have risks. But mitigating them, well, that’s on you. How did we get this idea that it's our personal responsibility to make a dent in big problems like climate change—and not the job of the government to impose regulations? That’s the focus of the new book It’s on You.

Host Flora Lichtman talks with behavioral scientist and It’s on You coauthor Nick Chater, about how he and his colleagues played a role in shaping a narrative of individual responsibility, and how to change it. 

Guest:

Dr. Nick Chater is a professor of behavioural science at Warwick University and coauthor of It's on You: How Corporations and Behavioral Scientists Have Convinced Us That We’re to Blame for Society's Deepest Problems.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality. Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see."

There’s something about space that captures the imagination of scientists and artists alike. Just ask astrophysicist Derek Ward-Thompson and astronomer Brian May (yes, THAT Brian May, guitarist of Queen). In their new book Islands in Infinity: Galaxies 3-D, they turn flat images of the galaxies to three dimensional spacescapes that leap off the page. 

Host Flora Lichtman talks with Ward-Thompson and May about the enchanting nature of space and the collision of art and astronomy. And yes, they get into the music.

Guests:

Dr. Brian May is an astronomer and the guitarist of Queen.

Dr. Derek Ward-Thompson is an astrophysicist at the University of Lancashire in England.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.