BornCurious Harvard Radcliffe Institute

In her work as a computer scientist, Fernanda Viégas focuses on data visualization and people-centered machine learning—but her background is in graphic design. So how did she land where she is today? In this episode, our hosts talk with Viégas about her unconventional path, her experience in the world of STEM, and what it’s like to sometimes be the only woman in the room. In addition, they talk about how taking a people-centered approach can make the field more inclusive.
This episode was recorded on February 29, 2024.
Released on May 9, 2024.
Episode Transcript
Guest
Fernanda Viégas is a Sally Starling Seaver Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, a Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and an affiliate with Harvard Business School. With her longtime collaborator, Martin Wattenberg, she coleads Google’s People + AI Research (PAIR) initiative, which advances the research and design of people-centric AI systems.
Related Content
Fernanda Viégas: Fellowship Biography
Fellow’s Talk: What’s Inside a Generative Artificial-Intelligence Model? And Why Should We Care?
People + AI Research
Credits
Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at Harvard Radcliffe Institute (HRI), where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.
Kevin Grady is the multimedia producer at HRI.
Alan Catello Grazioso is the executive producer of BornCurious and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.
Jeff Hayash is a freelance sound engineer and recordist.
Heather Min is your cohost and the senior manager of digital strategy at HRI.
Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.
Mahbuba Sumiya is a multimedia intern at HRI and a Harvard College student.

These days, it seems everyone is talking about artificial intelligence and machine learning—think ChatGPT. But how do these work, and where do they fall short? In this week’s episode, we do a deep dive on these tools with Fernanda Viégas, whose work in academia and industry focuses on people-centered machine learning.
This episode was recorded on February 29, 2024.
Released on May 2, 2024.
Episode Transcript
Guest
Fernanda Viégas is a Sally Starling Seaver Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, a Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and an affiliate with Harvard Business School. With her longtime collaborator, Martin Wattenberg, she coleads Google’s People + AI Research (PAIR) initiative, which advances the research and design of people-centric AI systems.
Related Content
Fernanda Viégas: Fellowship Biography
Fellow’s Talk: What’s Inside a Generative Artificial-Intelligence Model? And Why Should We Care?
People + AI Research
Credits
Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at Harvard Radcliffe Institute (HRI), where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.
Kevin Grady is the multimedia producer at HRI.
Alan Catello Grazioso is the executive producer of BornCurious and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.
Jeff Hayash is a freelance sound engineer and recordist.
Heather Min is your cohost and the senior manager of digital strategy at HRI.
Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.
Mahbuba Sumiya is a multimedia intern at HRI and a Harvard College student.

We’ve long known that our kindnesses benefit others, but did you know that they also benefit our own health? In this episode, our hosts sit down with the coauthors of a new book, The Biology of Kindness: Six Daily Choices for Health, Well-Being, and Longevity (MIT Press, 2024), that lays out the ways that science has shown prosocial behaviors to benefit us.
Guests
Immaculata De Vivo is the Melanie Mason Niemiec ’71 Faculty Codirector of the Sciences at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School for Public Health, and an international leader in the area of molecular and genetic epidemiology of cancer.
Daniel Lumera is a wildlife biologist, a research fellow in the sociology of cultural and communicative processes, and a lecturer and international reference in the area of wellness sciences, quality of life, and the practice of meditation.
This episode was recorded on February 29, 2024.
Released on April 18, 2024.
Episode Transcript
Guests
Immaculata De Vivo is the Melanie Mason Niemiec ’71 Faculty Codirector of the Sciences at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School for Public Health, and an international leader in the area of molecular and genetic epidemiology of cancer.
Daniel Lumera is a wildlife biologist, a research fellow in the sociology of cultural and communicative processes, and a lecturer and international reference in the area of wellness sciences, quality of life, and the practice of meditation.
Related Content
The Biology of Kindness: Six Daily Choices for Health, Well-Being, and Longevity
Immaculata De Vivo Radcliffe Biography
Daniel Lumera Personal Website
Credits
Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at Harvard Radcliffe Institute (HRI), where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.
Alan Catello Grazioso is your cohost, the executive producer of BornCurious, and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.
Jeff Hayash is a freelance sound engineer and recordist.
Marcus Knoke is a multimedia intern at HRI, a Harvard College student, and the general manager of Harvard Radio Broadcasting.
Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.

Heat waves, floods, droughts—catastrophes attributed to climate change seem to be happening more often. But is there reason for hope? In this episode, the climate change and disaster policy expert Rob Verchick outlines the challenges of climate change, especially when it comes to the law, along with why—despite the bad news—he remains hopeful.
This episode was recorded on December 5, 2023.
Released on April 11, 2024.
Episode Transcript
Guest
Rob Verchick is a legal scholar who specializes in climate change and disaster policy. He is the Gauthier-St. Martin Eminent Scholar and Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans, a senior fellow in disaster resilience at Tulane University, and the author, most recently, of The Octopus in the Parking Garage: A Call for Climate Resilience (Columbia University Press, 2023).
Related Content
Rob Verchick: Fellowship Biography
The Octopus in the Parking Garage: A Call for Climate Resilience
Fellow’s Talk: Nemo's Fever: Deep Thoughts on Water, Culture, and Climate Resilience
Connect the Dots Podcast 
Credits
Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at Harvard Radcliffe Institute (HRI), where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.
Alan Catello Grazioso is the executive producer of BornCurious and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.
Jeff Hayash is a freelance sound engineer and recordist.
Marcus Knoke is a multimedia intern at HRI, a Harvard College student, and the general manager of Harvard Radio Broadcasting.
Heather Min is your cohost and the senior manager of digital strategy at HRI.
Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.

Such environmental changes as pollution and climate change affect not only our ecosystem but also our people—those in low-income communities most of all. In this episode, our hosts talk to two recent Radcliffe Engaged Student Grant awardees from different disciplines—healthcare policy and the law—both of whom used the funds to study environmental inequality.
This episode was recorded on November 30, 2023.
Released on April 4, 2024.
Episode Transcript
Guests
Seth Gertz-Billingsley is a Harvard Law School student who was awarded a Radcliffe Engaged Student Grant to study air-conditioning and tenants’ rights.
Sonya Gupta is pursuing a master’s degree in regional studies—Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia—at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and was awarded a Radcliffe Engaged Student Grant to fund her project GeoAdvocates (formerly Mapping Chicago).
Related Content
In a Warming World, Is Air-Conditioning a Right?
Student Spotlight: Sonya Gupta AM ’24
Radcliffe Engaged Student Grant Program
Credits
Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at Harvard Radcliffe Institute (HRI), where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.
Alan Catello Grazioso is the executive producer of BornCurious and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.
Jeff Hayash is a freelance sound engineer and recordist.
Marcus Knoke is a multimedia intern at HRI, a Harvard College student, and the general manager of Harvard Radio Broadcasting.
Heather Min is your cohost and the senior manager of digital strategy at HRI.
Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.
Special thanks to Cabin 3 Media for their invaluable contributions to the editing of this podcast episode.

The scholars and university leaders Ruth J. Simmons and Tomiko Brown-Nagin discuss Simmons’s recent memoir, Up Home: One Girl’s Journey (Random House, 2023). Along the way, they consider her personal journey, her pioneering work researching and sharing publicly universities’ historical ties to slavery, and her perspectives on the future of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and higher education in light of recent Supreme Court rulings.
This episode was recorded on November 14, 2023.
Released on March 21, 2024.
Episode Transcript
Guests
Ruth J. Simmons is a distinguished presidential fellow at Rice University and senior adviser to the president of Harvard University on engagement with HBCUs. She served as president of Prairie View A&M University until March 2023. Prior to joining Prairie View, she was president of Brown University from 2001 to 2012 and president of Smith College from 1995 to 2001.
Tiya Miles is a Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute and the Michael Garvey Professor of History at the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She leads the audience Q and A in this episode.
Guest Host
Tomiko Brown-Nagin is dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, and a professor of history in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Related Content
Up Home: One Girl's Journey (Random House, 2023)
Harvard Gazette: Ruth Simmons Named to Senior Post Advising on HBCU Partnerships
Event Page
Tiya Miles: Radcliffe Professor Biography
Credits
Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at Harvard Radcliffe Institute (HRI), where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.
Alan Catello Grazioso is the executive producer of BornCurious and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.
Jeff Hayash is a freelance sound engineer and recordist.
Marcus Knoke is a multimedia intern at HRI, a Harvard College student, and the general manager of Harvard Radio Broadcasting.
Heather Min is your cohost and the senior manager of digital strategy at HRI.
Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.
Special thanks to Kevin Grady and Max Doyle from Radcliffe’s event streaming team for their invaluable contributions to recording this podcast episode.