Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

She 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 masseuse) and the downright annoying (a stuffed animal toy that wouldn’t shut up). 

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Alan 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 with robots, the challenges of an expert witness and the sheer joy of joy.

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There 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, ranging from our upbringing to how well we slept.

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Opposition 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 opposing vaccines today – vaccines that are overwhelmingly safe and have saved millions of lives.

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An 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 step could be a smile and a hello to the stranger sitting next to you.

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A 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 ranging from Alzheimer's to bipolar disorder.

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Vivid 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 saved millions of lives.

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Mutations 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 up our livers and fighting off germs.

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Today 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.

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On 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 written."

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A 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 joy, as recounted in her new book – Joyful, Anyway

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As AI takes an increasing role in medical decisions, a physician employs stories to tell how the role of our doctors is changing

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Finding 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 connect with others.

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Alan 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 places; why telling stories makes for better doctors; and how Alan’s character in The West Wing, Arnie Vinick, came to be.

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Alan 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, Wondrous Life, hits the bookshelves.

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In 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 just need to change the conversation.

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Wondering 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; not just on why and how we have them, but on how to turn them from toxic to constructive.

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In 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 communicate.

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CBS 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 patients to be effective participants in their own care.

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Whether 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 for those who might think they have no accent at all.



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Flowering 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 our own evolution.

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Best 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 personal dive into the nature of consciousness.

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The 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 Carolina’s Combahee River.

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For 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 concerned about what may come next.

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Her 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 developing the concept of stoic empathy as a way to navigate challenges. 

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Alan 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 the very different circumstances of a doctor’s office; why chatbots can still be exasperating; Harriet Tubman’s key role in a daring raid freeing 700 slaves; and why accents are so revealing.

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At 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 masterpiece and recalls the time she played his wife in his movie The Four Seasons.

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It’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 here...Really?

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…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 but were much smarter than us Earthlings. How Martians came… and went.

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A 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 their stories in her new book, The Mattering Instinct.

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Experiments 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 and other mentally crippling memories.

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These 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 fiction and why, more than ever, truth matters.

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She 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 relationship with those she disagrees with.

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The 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 out to be unexpectedly useful.

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Babies 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 of humor. And the better they are at getting jokes, the better they are at connecting with others.

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Almost 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 busy career, she's helped keep alive and thriving her father’s dream of a research hospital for children.

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In 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 engaging videos on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

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Alan 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 both laugh and think; why truth is so elusive; and how Marlo Thomas kick started Alan’s movie career as well as helping her father found the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

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How 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 is contributing to on social media.

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The 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 for journalism; and how Columbia is preparing tomorrow’s journalists for the new reality.

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