The Future of Everything

In her research, Madalina Vlasceanu explores the psychology of sustainability. She’s keenly interested in how people form beliefs and what motivates them to action. Her research shows that the erosion of institutional trust is an intentional tactic and that climate polarization is manufactured by fossil fuel interests to drive disengagement. Vlasceanu offers evidence-based recommendations for turning despair into action. Concern for future generations is an effective strategy for generating policy support, she says, while restoring trust in institutions is key to action. Climate change is a collective problem and we must address it collectively, Vlasceanu tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.
Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.
Episode Reference Links:
Stanford Profile: Madalina Vlasceanu
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Russ Altman introduces guest Madalina Vlasceanu, a professor of environmental social science and organizational behavior at Stanford University.
(00:01:50) Studying Climate Beliefs
How Vlasceanu moved from memory research to studying misinformation, belief formation, and climate action.
(00:03:33) Climate Misinformation and Disinformation
The large amount of false information shared both unintentionally and deliberately to mislead.
(00:05:35) The Polarization of Climate Beliefs
How climate change shifted from a relatively nonpartisan issue to one strongly shaped by political identity and elite influence.
(00:08:28) How Groups Shape Beliefs
Why people form beliefs not only through evidence and reasoning, but also through social cues, identity, and the desire to belong.
(00:10:02) Individual vs. Collective Climate Action
How climate solutions range from personal lifestyle changes to collective action and system-level change.
(00:11:25) Misjudging Climate Impact
Why people tend to overestimate low-impact actions like recycling and underestimate higher-impact choices.
(00:14:15) Correcting Climate Misperceptions
How simple information can help people better understand which climate actions have the greatest impact.
(00:15:51) Prediction and Learning
Why prediction errors can strengthen learning, memory, and belief updating.
(00:16:25) Algorithms, AI, and Climate Beliefs
How online systems can amplify misinformation and existing biases—and how better policy could potentially redirect them.
(00:18:13) AI’s Climate Impact
How AI affects the climate not only through data centers, but also by increasing efficiency across existing energy industries.
(00:21:42) Collective Action’s Impact
The difficulty of quantifying the impact and the power of collective action
(00:24:41) Motivating Civic Engagement
How contacting representatives, voting, joining organizations, and participating locally can influence climate policy.
(00:26:38) What Motivates Climate Action?
Large-scale studies compare interventions to identify which psychological strategies work best.
(00:31:07) Extreme Weather and Climate Beliefs
Why experiencing a natural disaster does not necessarily change climate beliefs unless people connect the event to climate change.
(00:33:27) Future In a Minute
Rapid-fire Q&A: collective action, democracy, and hope for the future.
(00:34:57) Conclusion

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New York Fashion Week wrapped up last month, but the questions it raises don't go away once the runways come down: why do clothes carry so much meaning, and who really gets to decide what "professional" looks like? Today we’re re-releasing a conversation I had with Stanford law professor Richard Ford, who's spent his career studying the surprising legal history behind our clothes — from laws in the Middle Ages that dictated what you could wear based on rank, to modern fights over workplace hairstyles and school dress codes. We get into how dress codes have shaped the fight for civil rights, and why so many workers in Silicon Valley wear the exact same fleece vest. Whether your closet is full of statement pieces or you’ve been wearing the same shirt on repeat all week, we hope you’ll take another listen to this interesting conversation.
Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.
Episode Reference Links:
Stanford Profile: Rich Ford
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Russ Altman introduces this re-release with Richard Ford, a professor of law at Stanford University, on the history, meaning, and power of dress codes.
(00:02:12) Why Study Dress Codes?
How civil rights, constitutional law, workplace rules, and school policies led Ford to study fashion and dress codes.
(00:03:30) The Origins of Dress Codes
How fashion emerged in the late Middle Ages and sumptuary laws regulated clothing by social rank.
(00:05:09) Written and Unwritten Rules
How formal dress codes gave way to powerful social expectations about what people should wear.
(00:06:31) Fashion and Self-Expression
How people, especially young people, find ways to express themselves even within strict dress codes.
(00:08:04) The Great Masculine Renunciation
How men’s fashion shifted toward sober, practical clothing as political and social values changed.
(00:11:00) Dress Codes and Social Control
How rules about clothing can reinforce hierarchy while also inspiring resistance and social change.
(00:12:46) Hair as Fashion and Identity
How hairstyles have reflected class, professionalism, gender, and cultural identity across history.
(00:14:51) Dress Codes and Civil Rights
How clothing and hairstyles became tools of protest, respectability, and racial identity during the civil rights era.
(00:17:45) Clothing, Race, and Respect
How Ford’s father shaped his understanding of dress as a way to express self-respect and command respect from others.
(00:20:29) Reverse Snobbery
Why dressing down can sometimes signal higher status in academia, Silicon Valley, and other elite environments.
(00:22:18) Gender and Fashion
How clothing expectations have historically constrained women and reinforced ideas about gender.
(00:24:38) The Midtown Uniform
Why workers can converge on an unofficial uniform even after formal workplace dress codes disappear.
(00:25:54) The Case for Uniforms
How uniforms can reduce status competition while creating tension with self-expression.
(00:27:36) The Future of Dress Codes
Why self-expression through clothing is unlikely to disappear even as fashion becomes increasingly casual.
(00:28:41) Future In a Minute
Rapid-fire Q&A: fashion, young people, sustainability, equality, and the future.
(00:30:07) Conclusion


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Nir Halevy, an expert on organizational behavior, first grew interested in social hierarchies as a basketball fan. He now studies what makes for healthy workplaces. Organizational hierarchies can be beneficial, but can turn toxic. When people have power without status – control but little respect – conflict often follows. Halevy says that collaboration, not competition, is key to employee well-being. “If you care about freedom, seek cooperative environments. They will liberate you,” Halevy tells listeners – and host Russ Altman – on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.
Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.
Episode Reference Links:
Stanford Profile: Nir Halevy
Learn more about Nir’s Book ‘Level Up’
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Russ Altman introduces guest Nir Halevy, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the dynamics of power, status, and hierarchy.
(00:03:42) Studying Social Influence
How Halevy became interested in the ways people gain influence in groups, teams, and organizations.
(00:05:40) What Is a Hierarchy?
How formal and informal hierarchies emerge around power, status, achievement, and influence.
(00:07:56) Why Hierarchies Are Sticky
The Positive and negative forces that contribute to the persistence of hierarchies
(00:10:15) Navigating Hierarchies
How people lower in a hierarchy can influence others without resorting to manipulation or undermining colleagues.
(00:13:01) Power vs. Status
Why having control over resources is different from being respected and admired.
(00:14:36) The Danger of Power Without Status
How low status combined with power can fuel resentment, conflict, and abuse of authority.
(00:16:39) Respect and Recognition
Why giving people dignity, appreciation, and status can matter as much as giving them more power.
(00:20:03) Autonomy at Work
How cooperation and competition shape people’s sense of freedom and control in the workplace.
(00:23:26) Secrets at Work
How workplace secrecy can increase stress and loneliness while also making work feel more meaningful and important.
(00:25:30) Supporting People in Confidential Work
Why social support can help reduce the isolation that comes with confidential work.
(00:26:12) Three Dimensions of Wellbeing
How happiness, interestingness, and meaningfulness can each shape the experience of work.
(00:28:30) A Pluralistic Approach to Leadership
Why recognizing different ways people contribute can help leaders support status, value, and wellbeing.
(00:29:54) Future In a Minute
Rapid-fire Q&A: cooperation, work-life balance, research partnerships, and hope for the future.
(00:30:56) Conclusion

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Hi everyone, we had big news out of Stanford this week: Karl Deisseroth has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries leading to optogenetics, a technique that makes it possible to switch individual nerve cells on or off in the living brain. To celebrate, we're re-releasing a live conversation Russ had with Karl a few years ago. He's both a bioengineer and a practicing psychiatrist, and he tells me how he built a way to control brain cells with light, why the odds were stacked against it, and how it could open the door to better treatments for psychiatric disorders. We also talk about his book Projections and what it takes to turn a long-shot idea into a tool that changes neuroscience. Congratulations, Karl, on an honor so well deserved. Whether this is your first listen or your second, it's one worth hearing.
Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.
Episode Reference Links:
Stanford Profile: Karl Deisseroth
Learn more about Karl's Nobel Prize win
Learn more about Optogenetics
Reactions to Karl's Nobel Win    
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Russ Altman introduces Karl Deisseroth, a professor of bioengineering, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
(00:04:49) Technology and Discovery
Why Deisseroth sees technology development and basic neuroscience as inseparable.
(00:06:36) What Is Optogenetics?
How light can be used to precisely turn specific cells in the brain on or off.
(00:08:27) Turning an Idea into a Tool
The process that led to optogenetics
(00:10:57) Microbial Opsins
How light-sensitive proteins from microorganisms became the foundation for controlling neurons with light.
(00:14:11) Optogenetics in Humans
How optogenetics has already been used to restore limited vision, and what that suggests for future therapies.
(00:17:37) Psychiatry and the Lab
How Deisseroth’s work with patients shapes the scientific questions his lab pursues.
(00:21:48) The Most Pressing Questions in Neuroscience Today
Why identifying the brain’s many cell types became a central goal of the BRAIN Initiative.
(00:24:28) Correlation vs. Causality
Why understanding which neurons actually drive behavior requires more than simply observing brain activity.
(00:26:52) Controlling Brain Networks
How researchers are beginning to study and manipulate multiple brain regions with precise timing.
(00:28:19) The Need for Neuroscience Theory
Why better technology creates a growing need for theories that can guide which neural circuits to study.
(00:29:38) Writing Projections
Why Deisseroth wrote about the inner worlds of psychiatric patients alongside the science of the brain.
(00:32:59) Capturing Patients’ Inner Worlds
How feedback from people with psychiatric disorders shaped Deisseroth’s view of the book’s impact.
(00:34:26) Conclusion


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Clinical psychologist James Gross is fascinated by what emotions are, and he champions emotional literacy – a deeper understanding of what makes each of us tick. In his research, Gross explores his “favorite topic,” emotion regulation, through the cognitive strategy of reappraisal to shift how we perceive and deal with unhelpful emotions. He talks about the Synergistic Mindsets intervention he co-developed, which is helping Gen Zers reframe their stress and regulate emotions. Emotions aren’t inherently bad, but we must separate the helpful from the harmful, Gross tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.
Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.
Episode Reference Links:
Stanford Profile: James Gross
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Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Russ Altman introduces guest James Gross, a professor of psychology and philosophy at Stanford University, and the science of understanding and regulating emotions.
(00:03:50) Why Study Emotions?
How Gross became interested in emotions and their role in shaping human behavior.
(00:04:22) What Is an Emotion?
How scientists define emotions as coordinated responses to situations that matter to us.
(00:06:00) Affect and Emotion
How affect differs from emotion, and why emotions may require more complex cognitive processing.
(00:07:59) Emotional Clarity
How recognizing what we feel and where those feelings come from can help us understand our emotions.
(00:09:53) Emotion Regulation
Why regulating emotions is less about suppressing them and more about deciding when they are helpful.
(00:12:25) Strategies for Regulation
How different approaches to emotion regulation work—and why some are more effective than others.
(00:13:30) How Emotions Are Generated
How situations, attention, expectations, and goals combine to produce emotional responses.
(00:15:25) Reappraisal
How changing the way we interpret a situation can change the emotions it produces.
(00:17:25) AI and Emotional Support
How large language models could potentially support people in reframing difficult experiences.
(00:18:09) Emotions in Everyday Life
How emotion regulation research can support parents, teachers, patients, and healthcare providers.
(00:20:53) Young People and Mental Health
How emotional clarity and regulation may help explain and address challenges facing younger generations.
(00:24:40) Understanding the Sources of Stress
Why social media, isolation, economic pressures, and other factors can shape young people’s emotional lives.
(00:26:15) Synergistic Mindsets
How changing beliefs about challenges and stress can produce healthier emotional and physiological responses.
(00:29:30) What Makes You Tick?
How a Stanford course helps students examine the forces shaping their behavior, emotions, and decisions.
(00:31:34) Emotional Intelligence
Why Gross sees value in emotion regulation while questioning whether “EQ” is scientifically established as a single intelligence.
(00:32:57) Future In a Minute
Rapid-fire Q&A: emotions, passion, & affective science.
(00:35:10) Conclusion

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