Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

MASH changed Alan’s life as well as the lives of the rest of the MASH cast. In this revisit of a free-wheeling conversation recorded in 2019 Alan, and the gang reminisce about an extraordinary eleven years of connecting and communicating.

Transcribed - Published: 25 November 2025

Alan revisits a conversation he had with Michael seven years ago, at a time when Fox had been grappling with Parkinson’s Disease for 27 years and Alan for three. As Alan says in this updated episode, both have been fighting Parkinson’s with attitude – plenty of attitude.

Transcribed - Published: 18 November 2025

A confident prediction from the man who first brought our warming planet to public attention some 35 years ago. Energy from solar and wind is now cheaper than traditional fossil fuels and is being rapidly adopted across the world. The exception is the US where the federal priority is planet-warming coal, oil and gas. But even in the US, local action, prompted in part by McKibben-backed organizations like Third Act and 350.org, is promoting innovative uses of solar power.

Transcribed - Published: 11 November 2025

In a surprising shift in how we communicate about the climate crisis, Kate Marvel explores the feelings evoked by her research. Her new book tackles what’s happening to our changing planet, each chapter triggering in her a different emotional response – from wonder and anger, though guilt to love: using emotion along with facts to spur action.

Transcribed - Published: 4 November 2025

Data: dry and boring, right? Not in the hands of Justin Evans, a data expert himself, who set out to show that data is not only the lifeblood of today’s world; it is also the source of moving stories of other data experts who have achieved remarkable things – like the epidemiologist whose inspired use of data in the early days of Covid helped save hundreds of thousands of lives in New York city alone.

Transcribed - Published: 28 October 2025

After adopting a beagle that had spent the first four years of his life as an experimental subject in a laboratory, she set out – with Hammy the beagle by her side – to explore the murky world of animal experimentation. She tells the story of her travels and her discoveries in a new book, Lab Dog.

Transcribed - Published: 21 October 2025

Not only are non-violent protests more effective than armed resistance, but a surprisingly small percentage of the population – around three and a half percent – has been enough to change governments.

Transcribed - Published: 14 October 2025

With long memories and the ability to figure out what other crows are thinking – then plot to outdo them, using what Nicky Clayton calls “sleight of beak” – crows are at least as smart as chimpanzees, despite having very different brains.

Transcribed - Published: 7 October 2025

It then becomes “common knowledge,” and can be both beneficial – like cementing friendships or empowering peaceful protests – or destructive, causing a run on toilet paper or splitting society into silos, each with their own common knowledge.

Transcribed - Published: 30 September 2025

Alan and Executive Producer Graham Chedd look ahead to next season and some unexpected connections between our first guests. They include best-selling author Steven Pinker, and how you know that I know that you know that I know; psychologist Nicky Clayton and why crows are so smart; Erica Chenoweth and the power of peaceful protest; climate scientist Kate Marvel on why she gets emotional in her new book; and journalist Melanie Kaplan, who with her beagle Hammy explore together the murky world of animal experimentation.

Transcribed - Published: 23 September 2025

Perched on a mountain top in Chile, the new Vera Rubin Observatory’s telescope will view the universe as it’s never been seen before, seeking answers to cosmic mysteries like dark energy and dark matter, but also helping keep Earth safe from potentially dangerous asteroids.

Transcribed - Published: 16 September 2025

With lessons learned from the Covid pandemic, he points to how we might better tackle the next, inevitable, global pandemic — at a time when science has been all but discarded from the leading government agencies responsible for public health.

Transcribed - Published: 9 September 2025

Unlike most other land animals, we can live almost anywhere – from deserts, to mountains, rain forests, even the arctic. We are supremely adaptable, and that adaptability has led to our diversity – not only in our biology but also in our cultures.

Transcribed - Published: 2 September 2025

Along with revelations about snake sex, their contributions to medicine, that flickering tongue and why slithering is a secret to their success, Stephen Hall goes at least some way to convincing Alan that snakes – “the ultimate other” – deserve our respect as well as our dread.

Transcribed - Published: 26 August 2025

She’s had a love-hate relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald since she was a teenager. And she’s now written a wonderful new take on The Great Gatsby, reimagining the story with a cast of the Black elite in post-war Los Angeles.

Transcribed - Published: 19 August 2025

An old friend of Clear and Vivid is back to enlighten Alan on some of the oddities of human behavior – both good and bad – and to talk about his entertaining new podcast, Father Offspring Interviews, hosted by his daughter.

Transcribed - Published: 12 August 2025

From his long running role as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, to his recent Broadway appearance in Glenngary Glen Ross, and his new incarnation as an off-beat action hero in the movies Nobody and Nobody 2, Bob Odenkirk does it all.

Transcribed - Published: 5 August 2025

With her Black scuba-diving companions she has sought to reveal the appalling cost in lives lost in sunken slave ships, while at the same time honoring those lives by telling their stories.

Transcribed - Published: 29 July 2025

Alan joins his old friend to compare notes on staying happy when old; and Roger shares tips from a forthcoming book, including some that may seem counterintuitive – like don’t use common sense, believe everyone, and don’t pay attention to people in your way.

Transcribed - Published: 22 July 2025

Tina Fey’s reimagining of a movie Alan made over 40 years ago has been a big hit for Netflix. She and Alan have fun talking about how she went about updating the story for a new generation.

Transcribed - Published: 15 July 2025

Alan lets bots mostly run the show to see how much they can do and still be under human control. For a while, it seems to go well, but then dangers start to emerge— and it gets a little scary.

Transcribed - Published: 8 July 2025

Alan and Clear and Vivid’s executive producer Graham Chedd chat about and play clips from some of the shows coming up in season 30. Guests include actor Bob Odenkirk, scuba diver Tara Roberts, and some AI chatbots.

Transcribed - Published: 1 July 2025

Research often derided for being a waste of money has led to world-changing breakthroughs, ranging from GPS to Ozempic.

Transcribed - Published: 24 June 2025

To celebrate Sir Paul’s 83rd birthday June 18th we are reprising a wonderful conversation recorded five years ago. Alan and Paul exchange their experiences writing and performing; and McCartney demonstrates how some of the Beatles’ greatest hits began with what he calls “oobley” chords on the piano.

Transcribed - Published: 17 June 2025

Reaching back to the first season of Clear and Vivid, a replay of the July 2018 episode when the violin virtuoso tells Alan why he likes to talk to his audience as well as play for them; why he plays Bach very differently from Tchaikovsky; and why the first time he played the Stradivarius that was to become his 30 years later, “I thought that I'd died and went to heaven.”

Transcribed - Published: 10 June 2025

In a world awash with misinformation, how do we know what’s true? How can we be certain about anything? It turns out one of the most effective ways began with a polite disagreement over the best way to pour a cup of tea.

Transcribed - Published: 3 June 2025

Playing attending physician “Robby” Robinson in the hit HBO Max series The Pitt has given him insights into how the harrowing world of the emergency room could be improved in real life.

Transcribed - Published: 27 May 2025

The recent discovery on a distant planet of a chemical that could be a sign of life has this astrophysicist intrigued if not convinced. But if it turns out to be real it would mean that not only are we not alone – “It would really mean that our Galaxy is teeming with life.”

Transcribed - Published: 20 May 2025

Now starring in the Netflix series The Four Seasons – based on Alan’s 1981 movie – he’s won an Emmy and has been nominated for two Oscars and two Tony awards. In 2024, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. And you surely didn’t miss him at this year’s Met Gala!

Transcribed - Published: 13 May 2025

While promises of extending the human lifespan to 125 and beyond are premature, recent breakthroughs in the early detection of killer diseases of the major organs and brain offer a healthier old age – especially when paired with behavioral changes that Dr Topol calls “Lifestyle+.”

Transcribed - Published: 6 May 2025

AI generated voices like Alexa and Siri are now so much a part of our everyday experience that disembodied chatbots that talk are edging ever closer to being accepted as real. And not for the first time: attempts to generate artificial human voices date back over two centuries.

Transcribed - Published: 29 April 2025

Stories of the discovery that the air is full of invisible life – and how that discovery was tragically overlooked when the covid pandemic struck.

Transcribed - Published: 22 April 2025

His far-reaching career acting, writing and producing on television and film spans voicing a sloth in the movie Ice Age to hosting a PBS series on the untold history of Latinos in the US. He’s fast talking, funny, outspoken and possesses a rare quality in his acting – on display in his new movie Bob Trevino Likes It.

Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025

Alan and Clear and Vivid’s executive producer Graham Chedd chat about and play clips from some of the shows coming up in season 29. Guests include actor John Leguizamo, science writer Carl Zimmer, and astrophysicist Mario Livio.

Transcribed - Published: 8 April 2025

A chat with an actor who does it all. After recovering from a near fatal fall on stage as his career was beginning, Bill Pullman has not only had a busy and award-winning career on stage, screen and television, he’s also getting into science communication – while working on a one-man play and making hard cider for his friends and neighbors.

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2025

How the letters in the acronym TALK can have a profound effect on the next conversation you have.

Transcribed - Published: 25 March 2025

A psychiatrist, engineer and neuroscientist, Kaf Dzirasa is researching ways to reengineer the brain to make it better able to cope with stress and so improve mental health.

Transcribed - Published: 18 March 2025

Artificial intelligence is poised to reshape our world, in many ways for the better. But the gains come with great risks – above all that its seductive appeal lulls us into believing that AI machines know better than we do.

Transcribed - Published: 11 March 2025

His new book Revenge of The Tipping Point takes a fresh look at the tipping points of social change he opened our eyes to 25 years ago –­ and unearths unexpected explanations for such new questions as: what really drove the opioid crisis, why diversity matters, and why Harvard University has a women’s rugby team.

Transcribed - Published: 4 March 2025

In a remarkable and illuminating tour de force, the novelist recently took a fresh look at her best-known book, going through it line by line and annotating it with handwritten notes in the margins – notes on things she both loved and hated. “It shows,” she says, “a lot about how to write a novel.”

Transcribed - Published: 25 February 2025

The answer, regrettably, is unbelievable. That is, unbelievable to most of us, because we cannot imagine a universe – including ourselves – made of waves. Quantum physicist Matt Strassler braves the task of convincing Alan he is a collection of waves, and in doing so helps Alan answer a question that’s haunted him for more than a decade.

Transcribed - Published: 18 February 2025

Her new book, Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love is an ode to the power of language to both shape us and be shaped by us. It’s informed by her own experience with languages: she spoke five before learning English as an immigrant to Canada as a child.

Transcribed - Published: 11 February 2025

The 500 feet of wiring packed into fruit fly’s brain has been fully mapped – giving insights into how the more that 300,000 miles of wiring packed into your brain generates your thoughts, feelings, perceptions and actions. These insights could also lead to novel treatments for the diseases caused when the wiring goes wrong.

Transcribed - Published: 4 February 2025

In 1925, a trial in a small town in Tennessee riveted the nation. In the dock was a young man named John Scopes, charged with violating a state law outlawing the teaching of evolution. The trial exposed fault lines in society that are opening again today, a century later.

Transcribed - Published: 28 January 2025

Music can lift our spirits, bring us to tears, spark our creativity, pace our workouts. Neuroscientist and musician Daniel Levitin explores all these benefits of music – and adds the recent scientific evidence that in some chronic medical conditions, music is medicinal.

Transcribed - Published: 21 January 2025

Alan and Clear and Vivid’s executive producer Graham Chedd chat about and play clips from some of the shows coming up in season 28. A major theme of the season is language – from babies picking up clues about their mother’s language while still in the womb, to male fruit flies singing courtship songs to female fruit flies, to a best-selling novelist second guessing some of the language she used in her best known novel.

Transcribed - Published: 14 January 2025

Offsprings of the Earth – Earthlings – we are most of us ignorant of the 3.5 billion years of experiments our planet has been through to produce us. Yet the story is there in the rocks all around us – if only we can decipher what they have to say.

Transcribed - Published: 7 January 2025

So much of our communication is spontaneous and yet we never really learn or are taught how to do it well – we’re just expected to do it. How to avoid being tongue-tied, whether when called upon to give an impromptu speech or when sitting next to a stranger at a dinner party.

Transcribed - Published: 31 December 2024

Eliciting the story behind a patient’s visit to the hospital can lead to better diagnosis and treatment than medical tests alone – and also reveals much of what needs fixing in health care today.

Transcribed - Published: 24 December 2024

Alan’s fleeting thought while chasing a spider around the floor sparked a conversation with an animal minds expert who argues that many more creatures than we imagine are conscious. What could this mean for our relationship with the rest of the animal kingdom – including those that annoy us and those we eat?

Transcribed - Published: 17 December 2024