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Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

324 | Elizabeth Mynatt on Universities and the Importance of Basic Research

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

Sean Carroll | Wondery

Society & Culture, Physics, Philosophy, Science, Ideas, Society

4.84.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It is not manifestly obvious that universities should be where most scholarly research is performed. One could imagine systems that separated out the tasks of "teaching students" and "generating new knowledge." But it turns out that combining them yields spectacular synergies, both from letting students experience cutting-edge research and from keeping researchers inspired by interacting with bright young minds. Today we talk to Elizabeth Mynatt, Dean of Computer Sciences at Northeastern, both about her own research in "human-centered computing," and about the bigger-picture issues of why basic research is important, and why universities are such good places to do it.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/08/11/324-elizabeth-mynatt-on-universities-and-the-importance-of-basic-research/

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Elizabeth Mynatt received a Ph.D. in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is currently Dean of the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. She is a senior investigator with Emory’s Cognitive Empowerment Program and co-PI for the NSF AI-CARING Institute. She is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was lead author on the National Academies report, "Information Technology Innovation: Resurgence, Confluence, and Continuing Impact."


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Searching for a romantic summer getaway. Escape with Rich Girl Summer, the new Audible original

0:05.2

from Lily Chew. The exquisitely talented Philippa Sue, returning to narrate her fifth

0:10.2

Lily Chew title. This time, Philippa is joined by her real-life husband, Stephen Pasquale,

0:15.5

set in Toronto's wealthy cottage country, aka the Hamptons of Canada, rich girl Summer follows the story of Valerie,

0:22.1

a down-on-her-luck event planner posing as a socialite's long-lost daughter, while piecing

0:26.5

together the secrets surrounding a mysterious family and falling deeper and deeper in love with the

0:31.7

impossibly hard to read and infuriatingly handsome family assistant, Nico. Caught between pretending to belong

0:38.2

and unexpectedly finding where she truly fits in,

0:41.3

Valerie learns her summer is about to get far more complicated

0:44.0

than she ever planned.

0:45.8

She's in over her head and head over heels.

0:48.5

Listen to Rich Girl Summer, now on Audible.

0:51.2

Go to audible.com slash rich girl summer.

0:55.0

Hi, it's Helen Pidd here, one of the hosts of the Guardian's award-winning daily news podcast today in focus.

1:01.4

We go beyond the headlines all over the world, talking to the people at the heart of the action, bringing you stories that matter every weekday.

1:09.4

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

1:14.4

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Mindscape podcast. I'm your host, Sean Carroll. A couple

1:18.7

months ago, I did a bonus episode that you might remember on science funding. And I was a little

1:26.6

worried when I did the episode in response, of course, to proposed cuts in science funding. And I was a little worried when I did the episode in response, of course, to

1:30.1

proposed cuts in science funding that the government has put forward, a little worried that it might

1:35.2

seem a little drying, a little inside baseball. You know, we were talking about indirect costs,

1:40.0

overhead, how different ways of applying for grants played out in the academic environment and so

...

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