Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are surgically implanted devices that link the brain to a computer. They can be helpful for people who’ve lost the ability to move or speak.
And they’re making progress. New generations of BCIs could go as far as to detect a person’s inner monologue.
But that progress is raising questions about the future privacy of our brains, and has some scientists asking, “What happens when you want to keep some things to yourself?”
NPR brain correspondent Jon Hamilton talks to Short Wave’s Emily Kwong about the future of BCIs.
Read more of Jon’s reporting on brain implants.
Interested in more on the future of brain science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it in an upcoming episode!
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Ologies with Alie Ward - Ceramology (POTTERY) with Potted History’s Graham Taylor & Sarah Lord Taylor
Porcelain. Earthenware. China. Archaeology. Stoneware. Anthropology. Amphora. Throwing wheels. We got it all. Master potters, history aficionados and Potted History’s icons Sarah Lord Taylor and Graham Taylor are here for our 8th anniversary episode. We get the dirt on ceramics versus pottery, where clay comes from, if there’s enough in the world, how can you spot clay in the wild, how long have humans being making pots, what were the first ceramics, what is glaze exactly, why did your pots explode, what excavations of stoneware have revealed about our ancient ancestors, the Venus figurines of history, the hidden ingredients that might surprise you, and how to feel about thrift store finds. Also: how to bond with a potter instantly.
Visit the Potted History website and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
Donations went to Cancer Research UK and Little Lifts
More episode sources and links
Other episodes you may enjoy: 5th Anniversary Special! Xylology (LUMBER), Experimental Archeology (OLD TOOLS/ATLATLS), Canistrumology (BASKET WEAVING), Museology (MUSEUMS), Indigenous Pedology (SOIL SCIENCE), Geology (ROCKS), Scatology (POOP)
400+ Ologies episodes sorted by topic
Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes
Transcripts and bleeped episodes
Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month
OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!
Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky
Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok
Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee
Managing Director: Susan Hale
Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth
Transcripts by Aveline Malek
Website by Kelly R. Dwyer
Theme song by Nick Thorburn
Planet Money - Asking for a friend … which jobs are safe from AI?
There’s one question we seem to be hearing everywhere: “Is my job safe from AI?”
Dozens of you, our listeners, have written to us about this. Saying things like, “Maybe my yoga teacher side gig is actually my safest bet now,” and “My parents were in real estate, and I never thought I’d say it ... but maybe that’s what I should do?”
If only there were a list that could tell you which jobs are safe from AI. We go looking for that list…and find that the AI future is going to be even weirder than we’d imagined.
Today on the show: We talk to two researchers who have come up with some first drafts of the future. We learned more about the machines that might be coming for our jobs, and also, more about what it actually means to be human.
Subscribe to Planet Money+
Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
Today’s episode was produced by Eric Mennel and edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Dozens of you, our listeners, have written to us about this. Saying things like, “Maybe my yoga teacher side gig is actually my safest bet now,” and “My parents were in real estate, and I never thought I’d say it ... but maybe that’s what I should do?”
If only there were a list that could tell you which jobs are safe from AI. We go looking for that list…and find that the AI future is going to be even weirder than we’d imagined.
Today on the show: We talk to two researchers who have come up with some first drafts of the future. We learned more about the machines that might be coming for our jobs, and also, more about what it actually means to be human.
Subscribe to Planet Money+
Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
Today’s episode was produced by Eric Mennel and edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
NPR's Book of the Day - ‘Misbehaving at the Crossroads’ is a lesson in the complexity of reconciliation
In her first nonfiction book Misbehaving at the Crossroads, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers weaves together history, political commentary and poetry that centers Black women. The poet and novelist’s essays explore what it’s like to occupy an intersectional identity while excavating the past. In today’s episode, Jeffers speaks with NPR’s Juana Summers about how writing this book led to a surprising reconciliation within her family.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
The Indicator from Planet Money - Can shareholders influence Elon Musk’s trillion dollar pay package?
Tesla’s board of directors recently proposed a pay package for CEO Elon Musk that could pay him about a trillion dollars if he meets certain goals. It’s not a done deal yet—Tesla shareholders will vote on the proposal at the company’s annual meeting in November. But just how much of a say do shareholders actually have in that decision? Or any decision?
Today on the show, we look at what it takes for a shareholder to get their voice heard and how this may be changing under the Trump administration. Plus we talk to one Tesla investor agitating for changes at the company.
Related episodes:
An epic proxy battle comes to Hasbro
Elon Musk and the fear of the activist investor
Impact investing, part 1: Money, meet morals
Impact investing, part 2: Can money meet morals?
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
What Could Go Right? - Democracy’s Next Chapter: Hope or Decline? with Brink Lindsey
What really went wrong with global politics? Emma welcomes Brink Lindsey, Senior VP at the Niskanen Center and author of The Captured Economy: How the Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, and Increase Inequality. Lindsey traces how politics, culture, and economics became unstable, from the development of liberal capitalism since the 1990s to the resulting rise of right-wing populism. He explores the contradictory ways this crisis manifests in society and culture, and how individuals and societies might chart a way out.
What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate.
For transcripts, to join the newsletter, and for more information, visit: theprogressnetwork.org
Watch the podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/theprogressnetwork
And follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok: @progressntwrk
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Trump Blew Up 11 People. Is That Legal?
Last week, Donald Trump announced the military had blown up what he said was a drug-smuggling boat. This week, we still don’t know why he believes the boat was full of smugglers.
But even if they were trafficking drugs, can the president legally blow up 11 people in international waters?
Guests: Shane Harris, staff writer covering national security and intelligence for The Atlantic.
Ana Vanessa Herrero, journalist based in Caracas, Venezuela and reporting on South America for the Washington Post.
Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Engines of Our Ingenuity - The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2684: Will Computers Replace Scientists?
Episode: 2684 Will Computers Replace Scientists? Today, will computers replace scientists?
Amarica's Constitution - The Big Equal
With the imminent publication of Born Equal, we explore Lincoln’s grand vision of equality as it played out during and after his life. The new book goes further still, offering an expansive though still relentlessly originalist view of this constitutional vision. And now Professor Amar sees this vision through with even greater implications for the 160 years since his death and into the future. The new book introduces, and this podcast and those to follow explore, a new unifying thread that gives even greater coherence to the Constitution, as amended and as understood through this momentous scholarly effort. CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.
Risky Business with Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova - Is There Really A Crisis of Masculinity?
Tesla has offered CEO Elon Musk a package worth $1 trillion to stay at the helm of the company — if he can hit a series of very ambitious goals. All of this comes in the midst of a serious dip in performance at the company, with stock falling 16% this year (partly as a result of Musk’s controversial moves on the world stage). So this week, Nate and Maria play armchair quarterback in a game of Good Call / Bad Call.
Then, they cut through the chatter over a modern masculinity crisis and get into the data. Is there really a crisis among men? Is it better to be a woman in 2025?
Further Reading:
Boy Crisis of 2025, Meet the ‘Boy Problem’ of the 1900s from NYT
The ‘Boy Crisis’ Is Overblown from NYT
For more from Nate and Maria, subscribe to their newsletters:
The Leap from Maria Konnikova
Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
array(3) { [0]=> string(184) "https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/951120d9-cf6e-4224-93d7-b15c014dcea5/d7a1d226-e96b-40f3-8370-b3530187ee5a/image.jpg?t=1757462153&size=Large" [1]=> string(10) "image/jpeg" [2]=> int(0) }