Glad You Asked

NASA says the first humans will set foot on Mars in the mid-2030’s. It will be the most dangerous mission any human has ever taken. Glad You Asked host Cleo Abram wants to know: What comes after that? Not how do we get there, but how will we survive once we do?

Glad You Asked host Joss Fong has been fascinated by crying her entire life. She’s even kept a spreadsheet of every time she cries to figure out what patterns lie in the triggers. This episode explores how crying evolved in humans and what it tells us about ourselves.

Death has changed dramatically in the last century. From the changing definition of death to near death experiences, Alex Clark embarks to answer arguably humanity’s biggest question: What happens when we die? While looking into the dreams of the dying, Alex finds there might be an answer.

This is a difficult question to ask yourself. But recent events and an increasing amount of research has shown just how much racial bias impacts our world. Before we can start the work of dismantling systemic racism, we have to first understand our own biases. Glad You Asked host Cleo Abram explores if we can measure those biases, how we shine a light on them, and what to do about them.

Many of us assume that tech is neutral, and we have turned to tech as a way to root out racism, sexism, or other “isms” plaguing human decision-making. But as data-driven systems become a bigger and bigger part of our lives, we also notice more and more when they fail, and, more importantly, that they don’t fail on everyone equally. Glad You Asked host Joss Fong wants to know: Why do we think tech is neutral? How do algorithms become biased? And how can we fix these algorithms before they cause harm?

Housing policy in the United States has a long history of deepening segregation. Redlining, exclusionary lending, and targeted zoning laws have all played a role in isolating minority populations while simultaneously privileging white residents. Glad You Asked host Lee Adams wants to know how this happened, and what effect residential segregation has on your future.