Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda
by Alan Alda
Latest episode
Steve Strogatz: The math that makes the modern world
Steve Strogatz: The math that makes the modern world
About this podcast
Learn to connect better with others in every area of your life. Immerse yourself in spirited conversations with people who know how hard it is, and yet how good it feels, to really connect with other people – whether it’s one person, an audience or a whole country. You'll know many of the people in these conversations – they are luminaries in our culture. Some you may not know. But what links them all is their powerful ability to relate and communicate. It's something we need now more than ever.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 443 episodes
- Steve Strogatz: The math that makes the modern world · 37 min · Season 35Math averse? Have no fear. In fact, have fun, as the role that math plays in your everyday life comes alive through vivid stories. And find out who is a little fearful…
- Kyle Vowinkel: Lessons from communicating with bad people · 37 min · Season 35A career successfully negotiating with terrorists and hostage takers has honed strategies for handling difficult conversations with both those we work with and those we love.
- Angela Duckworth: When grit is not enough · 37 min · Season 35Since her hugely successful book Grit was published a decade ago, she’s been thinking through situations when grit alone may not get you to your goals. As her new book suggests…
- Jeremy Faust: An ER doctor speaks his mind · 37 min · Season 35His influential newsletter Inside Medicine regularly challenges the misinformation coming from the current Health and Human Services Administration. Yet the busy ER doctor still…
- Joy Behar: Her third act · 36 min · Season 35Standup comedian, long time co-host of ABC’s The View, she is now entering what she calls her third act – as a playwright, with her play My First Ex-Husband, a hit in New York…
- Kelly McGonigal: Why joy is so joyful · 38 min · Season 35Joy is not just a fleeting emotion or feeling. It's an entire response system that includes changes in your body and your brain, preparing you to take in the good in life. And…
- Patrick McEnroe: Calling the shots · 37 min · Season 35The younger brother of tennis champion John – and himself ranked number three in the world in doubles – he shares connecting and communicating secrets, both on the court and in…
- Dame Sue Black: Science on trial · 38 min · Season 35Britain’s best known expert witness tells of trials where crime scene evidence has led not only to successful prosecutions but also in too many cases to people being punished for…
- Antonio Damasio: Consciousness starts in a surprising place · 37 min · Season 35Rather than being a feature of our complex brains, he argues that consciousness begins in the feelings and emotions generated by our bodies.
- Lisa Margulis: Music shares our daydreams · 37 min · Season 35Letting your mind wander while listening to music can open you up to rewarding daydreams. Surprisingly, there is a good chance that your musical daydream is shared by others.
- Joanna Stern: A year living with bots · 37 min · Season 35She spent twelve months trying out the best and the worst that AI has to offer, from the creepy (an AI boyfriend), to the helpful (an AI-powered mammogram) to the weird (a robot…
- Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda: Season 35 Trailer · 34 min · Season 35Alan and executive producer Graham Chedd introduce season 35 of Clear and Vivid. Topics include how music inspires daydreams, the mind games of championship tennis, a year living…
- Yael Schonbrun: It’s not what you say… · 38 min · Season 34There is more to successful communication than picking the right words. We need to understand that our understanding of others is shaped by factors we are mostly unaware of…
- Tom Levenson: Anti-vaxxers are living in the past · 37 min · Season 34Opposition to vaccines goes back to their invention. And while doubts about vaccine safely may have been justified 300 years ago, those same doubts have lingered among those…
- Nicholas Epley: Talking to strangers · 37 min · Season 34An encounter on his commuter train led to 20 years of research that changed his life for the better. You too can be friendlier, kinder, more open, more curious – and the first…
- Lisa Genova: She lets us into their worlds · 37 min · Season 34A neuroscientist who also writes novels – including one that became an award-winning movie – Lisa Genova lets us experience the stories lived by people with brain diseases…
- Matt Kaplan: They were right after all · 37 min · Season 34Vivid stories of scientists whose claims were ignored or ridiculed, from Galileo to Kati Karikó – the woman whose work was critical in developing the mRNA Covid vaccine that…
- Roxanne Khamsi: You are mutating – and that’s (mostly) a good thing · 36 min · Season 34Mutations sound scary. But the DNA that shaped us is has been mutating since we were born. Some mutations are bad for our health while others are helping us stay alive, sprucing…
- Lawrence O’Donnell: Inventing Arnie Vinick · 39 min · Season 34Today an MS NOW host, in 2004 he was writer/producer on the popular NBC series The West Wing tasked with introducing a new character – a Republican Senator running for president.
- Walter Isaacson: Are these truths still self-evident? · 36 min · Season 34On the eve of our nation's 250th, Walter Isaacson takes a deep dive into the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence. It's what he calls "the greatest sentence ever…
- Kate Bowler: Joy is surprising · 37 min · Season 34A decade on from being diagnosed with a deadly cancer – and eight years since her first visit with Clear and Vivid – she tells of the many ways she has been taken by surprise by…
- Dhruv Khullar: The doctor has stories · 37 min · Season 34As AI takes an increasing role in medical decisions, a physician employs stories to tell how the role of our doctors is changing
- Chris Duffy: How laughter connects us · 37 min · Season 34Finding humor in the many absurdities of everyday life – including our own foolishness – can help us see things in new ways, foster understanding… above all, mend our ability to…
- Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda: Season 34 Trailer · 26 min · Season 33Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd look ahead to season 34. Episodes include one of Alan’s favorite topics – humor, and its power to connect; finding joy in unexpected…
- Roger Rosenblatt: Aging well · 39 min · Season 33Alan revisits a conversation with his old friend to compare notes on staying happy when old, as Roger’s new book, More Rules for Aging: Making the Most of Your Ridiculous…
- Sonja Lyubomirsky: Lost that loving feeling? · 37 min · Season 33In her new book she argues that if you want to feel more loved, you don't need to change yourself, you don't need to change the other person (which is sure to backfire!). You…
- Julia Minson: Disagreeing agreeably · 37 min · Season 33Wondering why she and her husband got into frequent spats while practicing competitive ballroom dancing led her to a career in social psychology with a focus on disagreements…
- Ina Garten: Cooking to connect · 36 min · Season 33In her cookbooks and TV shows the Barefoot Contessa uses her early fascination with science to create meals that are not only great to eat but are also ways to connect and…
- Jon LaPook: Empathic medicine · 36 min · Season 33CBS News’ medical correspondent, he also heads the Empathy Project, creating Hollywood-quality short films that train healthcare providers to be more humane and help empower…
- Valerie Fridland: Yes, you have an accent · 38 min · Season 33Whether it’s the accent that hints at your hometown, your group, your social status or your ethnicity, the sounds we say reveal a lot about who we are and where we’ve been – even…
- David Haskell: When the world burst into bloom · 37 min · Season 33Flowering plants were late to evolve, but once they did, they took over most of the planet, connecting and communicating with a network of other living things and making possible…
- Michael Pollan: The mystery and marvel of consciousness · 37 min · Season 33Best known for his writings on food – and for his crisp summation of advice for healthy eating – “Eat food. Not too much. Mainly plants” – he has now taken a deep and very…
- Edda Fields-Black: The Harriet Tubman you didn’t know · 37 min · Season 33The remarkable and little-known story of how Harriet Tubman played a critical role in a daring raid that in 1863 freed some 700 slaves from rice plantations along South…
- Gary Marcus: Is AI mostly hype? · 37 min · Season 33For over 20 years he has been a relentless critic of the extravagant claims made for the current generation of AI based on Large Language Models, or LLMs. But he is even more…
- Shermin Kruse: When empathy becomes a strategy · 38 min · Season 33Her mother’s skillful use of empathy to defuse a potentially dangerous encounter on the streets of Tehran when she was nine has stayed with her ever since. It led to her…
- Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda: Season 33 Trailer · 27 min · Season 33Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd look ahead to the new season with clips from episodes on empathy – both helping defuse a dangerous situation in Tehran and its role in…
- Carol Burnett: A favorite conversation · 36 min · Season 32At age 92, Carol Burnett still graces our screens with her presence and humor. Alan revisits a 2019 conversation that explores with her what made The Carol Burnett Show a comedy…
- Adam Frank: Are there aliens out there? Probably. But UFOs – not so much · 38 min · Season 32It’s highly likely that life – maybe even intelligent life – has evolved elsewhere in the universe. But that aliens bother to hang out in our skies, or are even able to get…
- David Baron: When Martians were real · 36 min · Season 32…at least according to a bold-face December 1906 headline in the New York Times. This was in the middle of a decades-long fascination with the idea that Martians not only exist…
- Rebecca Goldstein: Why it matters to matter · 39 min · Season 32A philosopher and novelist, she has spent 40 years pondering why we all have a longing to matter. She’s talked with dozens of people about their own need to matter, and tells…
- Steve Ramirez: Forget about it · 38 min · Season 32Experiments with mice have shown it’s possible to tinker with and even erase a memory. The goal for neuroscience now is to apply the science to help people struggling with PTSD…
- Michael Shermer: Want to know the truth? · 37 min · Season 32These days, despite the internet providing us access to every imaginable source of information, the truth is harder than ever to find. A conversation about how to sort truth from…
- Loretta Ross: Better than calling out? Calling in · 38 min · Season 32She has spent over 50 years fighting racism, sexism and sexual violence, often fiercely. Now in her 70’s, her experiences have led her to move past anger toward a more empathic…
- Marc Abrahams: Laugh… then Think · 38 min · Season 32The Ig Nobel prizes are awarded every year in a ceremony that is as charming as it is ridiculous, awarding research that itself may seem ridiculous at first sight but often turns…
- Elena Hoicka: What makes a baby laugh? · 38 min · Season 32Babies find things funny long before they understand language – surprising even the author of the most detailed study to date of when and how babies and toddlers develop a sense…
- Marlo Thomas: That Girl who changed Television · 39 min · Season 32Almost 60 years ago she defied television conventions with her depiction of a young woman succeeding on her own in the big city. And for the last 30 years, along with her own…
- Morgan McSweeney aka Dr. Noc: Earning trust, delivering truths · 38 min · Season 32In the almost six years since the beginning of the pandemic he’s developed an on-line personality that’s an exuberant mix of medical expert and next-door neighbor, expressed in…
- Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda: Season 32 Trailer · 24 min · Season 32Alan and executive producer Graham Chedd look ahead to the new season, which includes episodes on how babies who giggle become socially smarter; prizes for science that makes you…
- Alex Pentland: Shared Wisdom · 39 min · Season 31How technological innovation has shaped our culture, with lessons from history and even from bees. And how these lessons can help tame and curate the information overload that AI…
- Jelani Cobb: Journalism at a Crossroads · 37 min · Season 31The Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism talks about how social media is overtaking traditional newspapers and television as most people’s source of news; what this means…
