Russ Altman Ph.D. ’89 MD ’90, professor and host of “The Future of Everything” podcast, says that “if people see that [scientists are] just trying to learn things to make the world better, [that they] have a vision of problems that they want to address … and that they’re people with stories,” then science can be more “relatable” to everyone.

Produced by the Stanford School of Engineering, Altman’s podcast invites guests to discuss their research and share their vision of the future of technology, science and medicine. With 300 episodes since 2017, the podcast groups topics into over 100 smaller “issues,” with the latest issue featuring four episodes about computational devices on the microscale. The variety of topics reflects the breadth of Altman’s own background as the Kenneth Fong Professor, and professor of bioengineering, genetics, medicine and biomedical data science.

“What we’re trying to do is showcase to the world the great scientists and engineers and scholars at Stanford and what they’re doing,” Altman said.

Altman’s idea for the podcast dates back to 2016. Following the presidential election, Altman concluded that “public understanding of scientists, science and academia was not quite right,” he said, citing public questioning of scientists’ research and motives for research.

Altman felt a podcast would address these misconceptions, bringing the public behind the scenes to better understand scientists’ motivations. 

With its premiere in 2017, Altman’s podcast has featured guests from the University’s engineering, medical, law and business schools.

“Our show is literally about the future of everything,” wrote director of public relations Jill Wu to the Daily, with input from Sarah Bielecki and Chloe Dionisio of the School of Engineering’s communication team. “While our host sits in the schools of engineering and medicine, with an audience that shows curiosity in a range of topics, we’re open to hosting guests who bring expertise beyond science and technology.”

The podcast aims to feature “a blend of scientists in different areas, genders and ethnic backgrounds,” Altman said. “We just want to make sure that all the beautiful diversity at Stanford is reflected.” 

“[The podcast] is more than just a passion project, it’s an opportunity to share how Stanford research impacts the world,” Wu wrote.

To prepare for each guest’s interview, Altman “basically Google stalks them the night before,” he said, to determine the interview’s first question. According to Altman, “These are talented, brilliant people,” so he typically asks: “‘Of all the things [you] could be doing, why are you doing this?’”

Once the conversation begins, Altman asks his guests: “‘Let’s break it down for regular people.’” As guests discuss highly technical research, Altman often pauses them and clarifies terminology, “looking to make sure that we haven’t lost anybody,” he said.

Podcast guests have noted Altman’s welcoming presence as a host. “He asks probing questions, but there are no gotcha-moments. His genuine curiosity and his sense of humor are his greatest assets,” Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of Addiction Medicine, wrote to The Daily regarding her episode.

Lembke hopes listeners come away from her episode with a better understanding of what addiction is and what they can do about it.

Associate professor of pathology Jonathan Long was excited to share his passions in his episode. “I hope people take away that metabolism is fun and interesting to study,” Long wrote to The Daily.

Altman enjoys using analogies to make difficult concepts more relatable. For example, in an upcoming episode with assistant professor of theater and performance studies Michael Rau, Altman tries to clarify the mechanics of a performance where actors followed an artificial intelligence (AI)-prompted script.  

Does the AI work “more like a road, where you stay on the road and you try to keep the person on a certain path, or is it more like a tree where depending on what they said, they could wind up anywhere?” Altman asked. Rau answered that it was a little bit of both.

Altman’s target audience changes from episode to episode. One episode with clinical professor of psychiatry Rania Awaad discusses Awaad’s care for the mental health of people of Islamic faith, especially amidst anti-Muslim sentiment in America.

“The mental health of the Muslim population isn’t on everybody’s mind,” Altman said. “So we got a lot of people either saying ‘I had no idea what it was like for those folks,’ or it was people who were those folks saying ‘Thank you.’”

“Maybe [the episode] didn’t get the most hits in the world, but for the people who did listen to it, I think it made an impact,” Altman said.

Moving forward, Altman has three goals for the podcast.

First, as the podcast nears its 300th episode, Altman wants to double down on its initial mission. Through guest choice or marketing decisions — such as Altman’s own guest appearances on other podcasts — Altman hopes to draw in more listeners who don’t trust science.

Second, as the 100th anniversary of the Stanford School of Engineering approaches this year, Altman plans to host a live episode at the end of the year, complete with an audience and Q&A session. 

Finally, on a more personal level, Altman wants to refine his own interviewing skills. From learning how to time his interruptions of the guests to improving his radio personality, “it’s kind of fun just to try to get better,” Altman said. “That’s the craft of doing the podcast.”

For us, Altman hopes listeners could help him share his episodes with a wider community: “If people listen to it and like it, please rate and review,” he said. “It sounds like a joke, but it’s so important for the algorithm to know that people are listening… [and] pushing it out to the world.”