logo
episode-header-image
May 30
44m 8s

24. Are We Under Threat from a New Kind ...

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher
About this episode
Amaryllis Fox is a former C.I.A. operative and host of the Netflix show The Business of Drugs. She explains why intelligence work requires empathy, and she soothes Steve’s fears about weapons of mass destruction. This episode originally aired on April 16th, 2021 and was replayed on January 14th, 2022. 
Up next
May 23
23. Greg Norman & Mark Broadie: Why Golf Beats an Orgasm and Why Data Beats Everything
Steve Levitt is obsessed with golf — and he’s pretty good at it too. As a thinly-veiled ploy to improve his own game, Steve talks to two titans of the sport: Greg “The Shark” Norman, who was the world’s top-ranked golfer for more than six years; and Mark Broadie, a Columbia profe ... Show More
42m 15s
May 16
22. Sal Khan: “If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion People.”
Khan Academy grew out of Sal Khan’s online math tutorials for his extended family. It’s now a platform used by more than 115 million people in 190 countries. So what does Khan want to do next? How about reinventing in-school learning, too? Find out why Steve nearly moved to Silic ... Show More
43m 54s
May 9
21. Pete Docter: “What If Monsters Really Do Exist?”
He’s the chief creative officer of Pixar, and the Academy Award-winning director of Soul, Inside Out, Up, and Monsters, Inc. Pete Docter and Steve talk about Pixar’s scrappy beginnings, why it costs $200 million to make an animated film, and the movie moment that changed Steve’s ... Show More
43m 16s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2025
Robots and reality
Are we entering an era when robots will finally liberate people, and particularly women, from the drudgery of housework? There is certainly a buzz around domestic robots right now and every month seems to bring us a new autonomous machine that can fold your clothes or stack your ... Show More
49m 27s
Jul 2024
Eve Herold, "Robots and the People Who Love Them: Holding on to Our Humanity in an Age of Social Robots" (St. Martin's Press, 2024)
The latest developments in robotics and artificial intelligence and a preview of the coming decades, based on research and interviews with the world's foremost experts. If there’s one universal trait among humans, it’s our social nature. The craving to connect is universal, compe ... Show More
51 m
Aug 2024
208. Can A.I. Companions Replace Human Connection?
tail spinning
35m 31s
Nov 2024
How to Stop Worrying and Love the Robot Apocalypse (Update)
<p>It’s true that robots (and other smart technologies) will kill many jobs. It may also be true that newer collaborative robots (“cobots”) will totally reinvigorate how work gets done. That, at least, is what the economists are telling us. Should we believe them?</p><p> </p><ul> ... Show More
48m 36s
Oct 2024
Technology and artificial intelligence
<p>We start with the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the ENIAC, built in 1946 by a team of female mathematicians including Kathleen Kay McNulty. We speak to Gini Mauchly Calcerano, daughter of Kathleen Kay McNulty, who developed ENIAC.</p><p>Then we hear about ... Show More
50m 52s
May 2017
Robots - More Human than Human?
Robots are becoming present in our lives, as companions, carers and as workers. Adam Rutherford explores our relationship with these machines. Have we made them to be merely more dextrous versions of us? Why do we want to make replicas of ourselves? Should we be worried that they ... Show More
26m 59s
Aug 2019
AI, Robot
Forget what sci-fi has told you about superintelligent robots that are uncannily human-like; the reality is more prosaic. Inside DeepMind’s robotics laboratory, Hannah explores what researchers call ‘embodied AI’: robot arms that are learning tasks like picking up plastic bricks, ... Show More
32m 33s
Sep 2021
Robot as Servant
The 1980s promised robotic servants were in reach. They’d clean up our houses. Bring us drinks. Usher in an era of leisure. We didn’t get robot butlers. But if we look around, we’ll find an army of robotic servants already automating away domestic drudgery.  Richard Rowland recou ... Show More
24m 59s
Sep 2024
Are Robots Going to Take Over the World?!?!?
AI technology is super trendy, but can also be super scary! The 3D Printing Doctor not only makes really fun trinkets and videos with his machines, he is actually a real scientist who specializes in AI and robotics! We asked him if there was any real possibility of robots taking ... Show More
54m 17s